Alex Lawler

LONDON, (Reuters) – OPEC officials fear that a ban by the European Union on oil coming from Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine will hurt consumers. The group had previously expressed its concern to Brussels.

Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are major OPEC members. OPEC+ however, which includes Russia, is not interested in the Ukraine question at any of its policy meetings.

Russia is heavily dependent on the EU’s crude oil. The EU has placed severe sanctions against Russia and even frozen its central bank assets. The EU has been discussing how and when to impose sanctions on Russia’s oil industry.

On March 16, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo and EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson met to discuss “extraordinary times” for the market.

According to one of the OPEC sources, the EU was made aware by the group’s concern. The source declined to identify himself, but said that they were very well-informed.

When asked for comments on the meeting of March 16, an EU official stated that: “OPEC provided their analysis of the market and informed us about their plans regarding oil production.”

The EU official stated that “as we have repeatedly said, there is no way to exclude future sanctions,”

The Vienna headquarters of OPEC did not respond immediately to a request for comment.