Poland, Estonia and other EU countries call for lowering the oil price ceiling from the current $60 a barrel, but the U.S. is against it. They are urging us to wait for restrictions against Russian oil products.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden opposes lowering the price ceiling on Russian oil, despite calls from some European countries to “further cut Moscow’s revenues,” Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

The $60-per-barrel price ceiling for Russian oil and the European embargo on Russian crude supplies by sea went into effect on December 5. As Bloomberg notes, Russian Urals oil is now trading below world prices and the established ceiling (according to the Ministry of Finance, the average price of Urals for the period from December 15 to January 14 was $46.82).

States that have set a price ceiling can change the level of the ceiling price at which it is allowed to buy oil from Russia every two months starting from mid-January. According to a Bloomberg source, the US wants to wait for the price ceiling on Russian oil products to work (February 5. the price ceiling has not yet been set) before revising the parameters of restrictions on crude oil. For the price ceiling to change, the consent of all G7 countries and the European Union is needed.

Poland, Estonia and some other EU members are calling for lowering the price ceiling. At the same time, other countries are afraid that this will hit their economies. According to Bloomberg, Germany insists that reviewing prices is carried out within a time frame that won’t mislead markets.

Experts at Finland’s Center for Energy and Clean Air Research CREA estimate Russia’s daily losses from the price ceiling at $172 million, which could rise to $280 million a day after Feb. 5.

The Russian authorities responded by banning supplies of oil and petroleum products to foreign nationals and companies if contracts “directly or indirectly provide for use of the price ceiling fixing mechanism.” Vice Prime Minister Alexander Novak earlier expressed confidence that the Western countries’ restrictions would destabilize the oil industry and that European and American consumers would have to pay for it first of all.

Earlier, we reported that oil prices ended with an increase for the second week in a row.