Western allies move to cap the price of Russian oil at $60 a barrel

After months of lobbying by the United States and days of fraught negotiations, Ukraine’s allies are closer to implementing a plan to cap the price of Russian oil starting next week, but European ambassadors on Friday proposed a cap so close to current prices that it is not clear if it will hit the Kremlin’s war chest.

t meetings in Brussels, diplomats agreed to $60 per barrel as an upper limit, with regular reviews to make sure the ceiling stays at least 5 percent below average market prices for Russian oil. If the Group of Seven nations and Australia agree, the cap would be implemented starting Monday, the day the European Union’s embargo on Russian seaborne crude goes into force.

The idea of the cap, pitched hard by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, is to limit how much Russia can make on the oil it diverts elsewhere in the world without creating a massive disruption in global supply. Participating countries would ban the provision of maritime services — such as finance and insurance — for shippers transporting Russian oil that do not comply with the cap.

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