Price cap on Russian petroleum products may not be as planned - U.S. official

Attempts of the United States and certain other countries to impose price restrictions on petroleum products supplied by Russia may have unexpected consequences, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen told reporters, cited by Reuters news agency.

"You know, there's always the potential that things may not go according to plan but we've studied these markets very carefully and we believe that we're going to come out with a set of caps that will achieve the same things that we've achieved with crude so far," Yellen said.

The new price caps are proven to be more challenging than for crude oil, considering the range of petroleum products, price structures and the need for supplies of Russian diesel fuel to the market, according to the Secretary.

"It's more complicated, but we've been working hard to figure out how to achieve the same objectives" as for the price ceiling for Russian oil, Yellen said.

Members of the Group of Seven, the EU and Australia set the price cap for seaborne shipments of Russian oil at the level of $60 per dollar for their ships and territories from December 5, 2022. Price caps for petroleum products will become effective since February 5 of this year.