Trump could deal heavy blow to Russian economy with three moves — energy expert

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

“Trump picked the longest route — he’s protecting both his own market and the Russians from collapse. That’s already clear. Trump could do three things that would seriously hit Russia in just his first 100 days in office. First, he has strategic oil reserves contaminated with hydrogen sulfide bacteria. With Republican backing, he could start selling off those reserves. He’s got about 430 million barrels now, so he could sell half. By the way, when Biden wanted to push down prices, he released an extra barrel onto the market every day. So Trump could do a similar intervention using the strategic reserve,” the expert explained.

According to him, Trump is doing the opposite right now — buying up oil whenever it gets cheaper, and basically keeping prices from falling. This can be seen in publicly available U.S. data. But he won’t be able to keep buying forever, and eventually he’ll end up where he was in 2021–2022: with all three major U.S. oil storage sites full and WTI prices (a U.S. oil benchmark produced in Texas – ed.) dropping below zero.

“The second thing — Trump could have revoked Chevron’s oil production licenses in Venezuela. And the third — he could raise the quotas other countries have for oil sales instead of playing these games,” Zakrevskyi added.

• In April, reports showed that Russia’s oil revenue had dropped to its lowest point since mid-2023. Exports have been shrinking for the third straight week, and fuel prices are falling amid the U.S.–China trade war.
• Earlier, Zakrevskyi, who is also Deputy Director of the Energy and Natural Resources Association of Ukraine, predicted that Brent crude would be priced around $60 per barrel by the end of the year.