Oil price ceiling is a road to 'world energy destruction,' says Putin

By Ceyhun Alizade

ANKARA (AA) – The oil price ceiling is a "road to the destruction of world energy," Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"This is the road towards the destruction of world energy. There may come a time when the underinvested industry will no longer provide the market with the required volume of products. And then prices can skyrocket. And they will hurt those who are trying to implement these tools," he told reporters in Moscow.

Putin called the price cap a non-market instrument and said oil-producing countries take this measure "personally."

"Everyone believes that this is only the first attempt to impose administrative rules on price regulation on producers," he asserted.

The Russian leader also called the West’s introduction of energy price restrictions an attempt at "colonial" robbery.

Putin underlined that oil and gas producers are mainly Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the countries of Latin America and Asia, while the main consumers are the US and Europe.

"The US produces both oil and gas, but they themselves consume everything, they have little left for the foreign market. That is, it (oil and gas) is produced in these countries, but consumed in the US and Europe. And, in my opinion, what they are trying to do now is such an atavism of colonialism, they are used to stealing, robbing other countries," he said.

If the gas price cap violates the contracts of Russian energy company Gazprom, Moscow will consider whether it is obligated to comply with them, the president added.

On Monday, EU energy ministers agreed on a gas price cap of €180 ($190) per megawatt/hour (MWh) in the bloc.