EU may discuss ban on Russian oil imports on Thursday

Foreign ministers from European Union member countries were set to discuss a ban on Russian oil imports when they met on 24 March.

According to the World Economic Forum, in 2021 the bloc imported approximately 26.9% of its crude oil from the Russian Federation, making it Moscow's largest export market for oil.

Some EU countries were lobbying hard for sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine to be extended to the country's energy sector, especially to its exports of oil.

Commenting on that possibility, in remarks to Bloomberg, Lithuania's foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said: "I think it is unavoidable to start talking about the energy sector and we definitely can talk about oil, because it is the biggest revenue to the Russian budget and also it is quite easily replaceable because of our infrastructure and multiple suppliers."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed that possibility on Monday, saying that ministers would discuss the possibility of sanctions on Russian oil when they next met.

For his part, Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said: "This is a decision that would hit everyone.

"Americans would not lose much and will feel much better than Europeans. Europeans would have it hard."

Worth noting, on 15 March, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that Russia had received written guarantees that its demand that Western sanctions not impact its trade with Iran would be met.

Analysts said that may pave the way for Iran's return to global oil markets.

The threat from Moscow to scupper the talks if that demand was not met had led a week earlier to the suspension of the talks with Tehran.

As of 1123 GMT, front month Brent crude oil futures were trading 4.5% higher to $112.77 a barrel on the ICE.