IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/feddwp/98000.html

The Impact of the 2022 Oil Embargo and Price Cap on Russian Oil Prices

Author

Abstract

This paper documents the effect of the oil embargo and price cap on Russian oil exports in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. We show that the embargo forced Russia to accept a $32/bbl discount on its Urals crude in March 2023 relative to January 2022, nearly half of which is directly attributable to the higher cost of shipping crude oil over longer distances, as Russia diverted much of its crude oil exports to India. Based on a calibrated model of global oil supply and demand, the remainder ($17/bbl) can be explained by increased Indian bargaining power. We also provide a similar analysis for the ESPO price discount on exports to China. In contrast, the price cap deprived Russia of the financial resources it spent on assembling a “shadow” fleet of tankers, but its effect on the Russian oil export price was negligible once the adoption of the price cap had facilitated the use of Western services to transport Russian oil to Asia.

Suggested Citation

  • Lutz Kilian & David Rapson & Burkhard Schipper, 2024. "The Impact of the 2022 Oil Embargo and Price Cap on Russian Oil Prices," Working Papers 2401, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, revised 31 Jan 2025.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:feddwp:98000
    DOI: 10.24149/wp2401r1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dallasfed.org/-/media/documents/research/papers/2024/wp2401r1.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.24149/wp2401r1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kilian, Lutz, 2019. "Measuring global real economic activity: Do recent critiques hold up to scrutiny?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 106-110.
    2. Lutz Kilian, 2009. "Not All Oil Price Shocks Are Alike: Disentangling Demand and Supply Shocks in the Crude Oil Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 1053-1069, June.
    3. repec:aen:journl:ej35-1-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Almutairi, Hossa & Pierru, Axel & Smith, James L., 2025. "Pandemic, Ukraine, OPEC+ and strategic stockpiles: Taming the oil market in turbulent times," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. Giulia Brancaccio & Myrto Kalouptsidi & Theodore Papageorgiou, 2020. "Geography, Transportation, and Endogenous Trade Costs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 657-691, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Diana & Yu, Xiaohong & Pardo-Piñashca, Eduardo, 2026. "Dynamic effects of EU economic sanctions on the EU-Russian energy market: Evidence on crude oil and natural gas," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    2. Tadashi ITO & Kiyoyasu TANAKA, 2026. "Oil Laundering: How did Russian oil circumvent the European Union’s embargo?," Discussion papers 26024, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Stephen W. Salant & Diego S. Cardoso & Julien Xavier Daubanes, 2026. "The Price Ceiling that Minimizes an Exporter’s Profits Without Raising the Buyers’ Price Excessively," CESifo Working Paper Series 12608, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aharon, David Y. & Azman Aziz, Mukhriz Izraf & Kallir, Ido, 2023. "Oil price shocks and inflation: A cross-national examination in the ASEAN5+3 countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Bouteska, Ahmed & Sharif, Taimur & Isskandarani, Layal & Abedin, Mohammad Zoynul, 2025. "Market efficiency and its determinants: Macro-level dynamics and micro-level characteristics of cryptocurrencies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Li, Zheng-Zheng & Meng, Qin & Zhang, Linling & Lobont, Oana-Ramona & Shen, Yijuan, 2023. "How do rare earth prices respond to economic and geopolitical factors?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    4. Baumeister, Christiane & Guérin, Pierre, 2021. "A comparison of monthly global indicators for forecasting growth," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1276-1295.
    5. David S. Jacks & Martin Stuermer, 2021. "Dry bulk shipping and the evolution of maritime transport costs, 1850–2020," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 204-227, July.
    6. Benmoussa, Amor Aniss & Ellwanger, Reinhard & Snudden, Stephen, 2026. "Carpe diem: Can daily oil prices improve model-based forecasts of the real price of crude oil?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 281-295.
    7. Banerjee, Joshua J., 2024. "Inflationary oil shocks, fiscal policy, and debt dynamics: New evidence from oil-importing OECD economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Zeina Alsalman, 2023. "Oil price shocks and US unemployment: evidence from disentangling the duration of unemployment spells in the labor market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 479-511, July.
    9. Konstantinos D. Melas & Nektarios A. Michail, 2024. "Can commodity prices predict stock market returns? The case of dry bulk shipping companies," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Zhang, Yulian & He, Xie & Nakajima, Tadahiro & Hamori, Shigeyuki, 2020. "Oil, Gas, or Financial Conditions-Which One Has a Stronger Link with Growth?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    11. Yao Axel Ehouman, 2020. "Do oil-market shocks drive global liquidity?," EconomiX Working Papers 2020-33, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    12. Duc Khuong Nguyen & Nikolas Topaloglou & Thomas Walther, 2020. "Asset Classes and Portfolio Diversification: Evidence from a Stochastic Spanning Approach," Working Papers 2020-009, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    13. Amor Aniss Benmoussa & Reinhard Ellwanger & Stephen Snudden, 2020. "The New Benchmark for Forecasts of the Real Price of Crude Oil," Staff Working Papers 20-39, Bank of Canada.
    14. Cai, Yifei, 2025. "US-China tensions, global supply chains pressure, and global economy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    15. Gilbert, Christopher L., 2023. "The impact of the Ukraine conflict on world grains prices," 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 334525, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    16. Güntner, Jochen & Öhlinger, Peter, 2022. "Oil price shocks and the hedging benefit of airline investments," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    17. Kilian, Lutz, 2022. "Facts and fiction in oil market modeling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    18. Maghyereh, Aktham & Abdoh, Hussein, 2021. "The effect of structural oil shocks on bank systemic risk in the GCC countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    19. Stolbov, Mikhail & Shchepeleva, Maria, 2022. "Modeling global real economic activity: Evidence from variable selection across quantiles," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    20. Raghavan, Mala, 2020. "An analysis of the global oil market using SVARMA models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:feddwp:98000. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Amy Chapman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbdaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.