Asia will become the ‘default market’ for Russian oil, Dan Yergin says

Asia will become the ‘default market’ for Russian oil, Dan Yergin says

Asia will become the default market for Russian oil as the country tries to find buyers for its energy exports, said Dan Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global. Major oil importers in Asia like China and India have been pressured by oil prices which have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Besides the appeal of cheaper Russian oil, both Beijing and New Delhi have close ties with Moscow. Yergin told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Monday: "It does look like Asia would be the default market for barrels of Russian oil that would have normally gone to Europe." The West has punished Moscow for the invasion economically with the U.S. banning Russian crude, the and the European Union weighing similar measures. Yergin added, "There's a lot of self sanctioning that's going on that's simply people not picking up oil, banks not providing letters of credit, shippers not showing up and, indeed, people in some ports not receiving Russian oil." That leaves Russia with excess crude that is difficult to sell and that situation is likely to worsen, analysts said. Russia, part of the OPEC+ alliance, is the world's largest exporter of oil to global markets and the second