The rate of export duty charged on crude increased by 23% between June and July, delivering an additional $1.42 a barrel to the Kremlin on every cargo shipped out of the country. That boost helped Russia shrug off a 15% drop in crude shipments in the week to July 8, with revenues edging down by just $3 million, or 2%, according to Bloomberg News.
The Group of Seven industrialized countries are under pressure to find a way to hurt Russia without spiking oil prices. In an attempt to do that, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pushing a plan to cap Russian oil prices in order to preserve export volumes while hitting the government’s revenues, Bloomberg said.
