Russia makes $1bn daily as EU disagrees on oil sanctions

European countries’ leaders are currently at loggerheads after they failed to find a lasting agreement on ban of Russian crude oil and gas.

In a meeting held between Sunday and Monday, the European Union failed to agree on an embargo on Russian oil.

The bloc will meet again on Tuesday.

The inability of the EU to reach an agreement means Russia is still earning over $1 billion from oil and gas sales to European countries, the Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Monday.

An EU official told journalists that a full oil embargo would be a big blow to many European countries.

One of the countries refusing to agree on a full oil embargo is Hungary with a simple message that it cannot easily get oil from elsewhere.

Slovakia and the Czech Republic have also expressed similar concerns.

To break the deadlock, the European Commission proposed that the ban applies only to Russian oil brought into the EU by tankers, leaving Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic to continue to receive their Russian oil via the Russian Druzhba pipeline for some time until alternative supplies can be arranged.

Nigeria has been touted among the countries expected to help solve the EU oil quagmire but can only watch the drama as oil production continues to lag.

The West African nation has under-produced since February, reporting 1.37 million during the month, 1.34million in March, and 1.32m in April, while output per day should be greater than 1.7 million.

Main Image: CNN