Top US Investor Rogers Says Russian Oil Price Cap To Have Short-Term Effect, Markets Adapt

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2022) The restrictions on Russian oil prices imposed by the G7 countries will have only a short-term impact on energy markets because people will find ways around the regime, legendary American investor Jim Rogers told Sputnik.

Western states and their allies last week placed a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian crude as part of an effort to limit earnings they said Moscow could use to fund the special military operation in Ukraine.

The founder of the oft-cited Rogers International Commodity Index (RICI) expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the new measures based on his years of experience investing in and studying markets.

"People react and they do what they have to do," Rogers said. "Within a few days people can figure out a way to get around the energy controls or the caps or anything else."

Rogers said the impact of the oil price cap will be short-term because buyers and sellers will take measures such as moving oil through black or parallel markets.

Over a longer term - a week, a month or a year - the oil price cap will have "virtually no effect at all," Rogers added.

"It distorts things for some people, but then in the end the market takes care of it," he said.

Rogers said he has always been skeptical of these types of price control efforts.

"I'm certainly skeptical of this one too, because I know how human beings are. It doesn't matter if they're Australians, if they're Germans or Russians or Americans. People figure out ways to get around controls," he said.

The Kremlin has said the price cap is unacceptable and Russia will not sell oil to any country that tries to implement it.

Rogers co-founded the world-renowned Quantum Fund and is currently the chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests. He is also the author of several books including "Investment Biker," "Adventure Capitalist," and "Street Smarts," and has the Guinness World Record for most countries visited in a continuous journey by car, an adventure he undertook from 1999-2002.