Less than two months remain before an ambitious G7 plan to cap Russian oil export prices beyond North America and Europe is due to be enacted, but many industry insiders are yet to grasp its key objective-keep Russian supply in the market. “I cannot say it more clearly: The point of the price cap is to preserve the trade of Russian oil,” albeit at lower prices, US assistant treasury secretary Ben Harris told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London on 5 October. Harris and other senior US ofcials have spent the last four months in meetings with market participants and foreign government ofcials to explain details of the plan proposed by the US and endorsed by the G7 group of major economies. But many still view the price cap plan through the prism of US actions targeting Iran and Venezuela-where the goal was to curb export volumes.
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