Bloomberg and other media reported on remarks made by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sept. 29 while visiting the port city of Savannah, Georgia. She said that “recent market prices for Russian oil suggest that the Group of Seven’s price cap is no longer working as hoped, her first such public acknowledgment of challenges with the program.
“‘It does point to some reduction in the effectiveness of the price cap,’ Yellen told reporters … when asked about reports that prices for Russian crude are now closer to $100 a barrel than to the $60 set in the cap.”
She introduced the price cap on Dec. 2, 2022, stating in a U.S. Treasury Department press release at the time: “Together, the G7, European Union, and Australia have now jointly set a cap on the price of seaborne Russian oil that will help us achieve our goal of restricting Putin’s primary source of revenue for his illegal war in Ukraine while simultaneously preserving the stability of global energy supplies. Today’s announcement is the culmination of months of effort by our coalition, and I commend the hard work of our partners in achieving this outcome.”