The EU wants to stop buying Russian oil, it is difficult to rely on the Middle East to fill the gap

The European Union has been negotiating for days on how to implement the Russian oil import b.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, if the EU stops importing Russian oil, the market gap will be an average of 2 million barrels of crude oil and 2 million barrels of refined oil per d.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, if the EU stops importing Russian oil, the market gap will be an average of 2 million barrels of crude oil and 2 million barrels of refined oil per d.

Don't get your hopes up, some oil analysts s.

Among OPEC members, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have the most production capacity, with a combined total of about 5 million barrels per day, said Amina Becker, chief correspondent for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPE.

Robin Mills, founder and CEO of Kalmar Energy in the United Arab Emirates, believes that the EU may require Gulf countries to distribute oil supplied to Asian customers at this stage to part of Europe, but only if there is "flexibility in long-term contracts, or with Asian buyers negotiated wel.

Apart from the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, Iran is most likely to increase oil suppli.

However, the negotiations between the United States and Iran to resume the implementation of the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue have not been successf.

Youssef Alshamari, chief executive and head of oil research at CMarkits, a UK-based energy market consultancy, said Iraq theoretically has excess capacity to add 660,000 barrels a d.

Analysts also noted that Iraq still lacks the infrastructure needed to increase producti.

Oil production in Libya is also often disrupted by political tensio.

Al-Shamari said the EU was "almost impossible to count on" Libya due to the unstable security situation and the repeated shutdowns of Libya's main oil fields due to "force majeur.

Outside the Middle East, major oil-producing countries such as Nigeria and Venezuela have surplus production capacity, but they cannot fill the gap for the EU for various reaso.

All of the above means that the EU may have to turn to the US for he.

Therefore, in Arshamari's view, an EU ban on Russian oil "could be harmful to the global econom.