Yellen Heading to Asia to Drum Up Support for Russian Oil Price Cap

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is heading to Asia next week to build support for a Russian oil price cap.

• Yellen will hold bilateral meetings in Tokyo on July 12-13 before gathering with Group of 20 finance officials in Bali, Indonesia, from July 15-16, followed by a day of talks in Seoul on July 19.
• "The more we talk to different countries about it, the more they understand the concept that we're putting forward and understand the rationale," a treasury official has said about the proposed Russian oil cap this week.
• The US and its allies have been touting a price cap of around $40-60/bbl for Russian oil.
• Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at the start of the week that the price cap could be around half its current market value, a move which Russia deemed as ‘unfriendly’ and could result in Japan losing access to the Sakhalin projects which the country heavily depends upon for LNG imports.
• There has been a lot of skepticism throughout the industry about the effectiveness of a Russian oil price cap and how it would be implemented especially if China and India, the main buyers of Russian crude, are not on board.