AIBU to think buying Russian oil again makes no sense?

Yes, and all the jobs in the aviation and connected industries.

But also, it's not all about aviation fuel.

Well apparently 75% of all aviation fuel use in the UK is used for holidays.

So if we remove holidays we use 25% of what we do currently.

It's not that simple. Even if we decided today to go drilling in the north sea, it would be 5 years before any production started.

Oh dear. It's not about cheap holidays. It's about food supply and jobs, including those involved in flying people to Benidorm, but mostly all the others.

What would you do instead OP?

How are you going to reduce fuel usage sufficiently so we don't need Russian oil and and keep everyone fed and working?

We can and do blame Trump for starting a war of choice in the Middle East affecting the world's major oil-producing nations.

This feeble "oh but I don't like Trump personally" hogwash endlessly trotted out to try to distract from his actions is long past its sell-by date.

I support the people of Ukraine, but i have to be honest, i support the people of the UK and their ability to buy food for their kids more.
Are we going to bankroll this war until Ukraine runs out of fighting age men, or is there a way to negotiate a peace agreement?

I cannot understand why we don't use our own assets. Drilling our own oil does not prevent us from continuing to invest in cleaner energy. Surely it could help to provide monies to fund cleaner fuels.

Hurts my head.😏

We were buying Russian oil via India in 2023. This has been going on for years. France use even more.

If they knew it was an issue in 2023 why didn’t Conservatives and Labour open up gas production here? It was pretty clear that Iran could be unstable at some point. It’s not a total shock surely. I’m not sure I would want to rely on Iran for anything.

Why are our leaders funding both sides of the war? And why do they think it’s not Russian oil as long as the oil goes through a third country! It’s bonkers.

I wouldn’t invite Trump for dinner but I’m not sure we can blame Trump for our weird views on Russian oil not being Russian oil if it goes on a long journey via India and uses more energy to do so. It would be hilarious really if it wasn’t making the gov look foolish and people here were paying FAR more money due to the leaders poor decisions and mental gymnastics.

Yep. Trump and Netanyahu's war in the Middle East has been an absolute bonanza for Putin.

Today's decision is a direct result of that war, despite any attempts to say "Look over there!"

From that BBC article you linked, OP, today's decision isn't a loosening of existing sanctions. New sanctions are being introduced, including closing the loophole described above about third party refiners.

Some of the planned additional sanctions are still being implemented on schedule, but the ban on third party refiners will now be phased in slowly rather than immediately.

UK waters down new Russian oil sanctions as fuel prices rise
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy42x3g7r89o

It's infuriating. Putin must be popping champagne corks over the whole situation.

Apparently we support Ukraine right up to the point that the support might threaten our low budget all inclusive to Benidorm.

Kemi just made PMQs all about this.

Seems like the Labour MPs didn't realise what they were voting for?

What worries me most is that this isn’t common knowledge nationally. It’s been going on since the start of sanctions.

France uses even more -

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-talk-tough-ukraine-while-gobble-up-more-russia-gas/

https://b4ukraine.org/whats-new/france-russian-fossil-fuels

Tax payers are funding both sides and paying more for the product. Insane!

It’s jet fuel that’s short so not really a windfarm and solar thing. We had two more major refineries but Labour’s tax policies saw them close.

Difficult. Putin is showing signs he wants to stop fighting. Giving him more money via oil is a bad idea on that score.

What was the excuse in 2023
and 2022?

The exclusive figures shared with the BBC from CREA estimated that during the first 12 months of the Russian oil ban from December 2022, some £569m worth of oil products imported by the UK were derived from Russian crude.
Both reports claimed the so-called loophole indirectly provided the Kremlin with more than £100m in tax revenues.

It's a difficult situation, but what alternative do we realistically have right now? We haven't completely capped the North Sea, but the government literally just voted against issuing new drilling licenses. With fuel prices skyrocketing from the Middle East conflict, they've had to relax sanctions so we can buy fuel refined from Russian oil via India. Norway is still heavily drilling in their side of the North Sea, but we already import a lot of that and it's clearly not enough to cover our needs.

We were importing oil from Russia long before Trump.

I wouldn’t want Trump round for dinner but it’s clear the papers/government are trying to blame him for it.

This article from the bbc shows we were participating in the oil farce before Trump was president.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68018660

Extract for those who hate clicky links. - In a separate research paper, campaign group Global Witness estimated that throughout 2023, some 5.2 million barrels of refined petroleum products that had been produced from Russian crude oil were imported to the UK.

The authorities do not need Trump to make them look immoral and stupid when they do a damn good job of doing stupid and immoral things all by themselves.

More windfarms and more solar would be a good first step. The NIMBYs and related idiots who oppose them are seriously working against the country's best interests.

Hypocrisy of the government at its best. Instead of standing up to Trump at the start the government is now back tracking and making the UK look immoral and stupid.

@ThedaBara

The media clearly have an agenda or they have their hands tied by officials.

Are people getting ‘cash back’ via Ukraine and India.

Surely Miliband, Starmer etc are not so daft to realise if oil has to travel 1000 miles it uses more emissions than oil travelling 100 miles.

If it doesn’t make sense usually part of the tale is missing - and often that’s money into people’s pockets.

Id like to see a financial audit on money into Ukraine.

Don't want to derail the OPs point, but the media seems to have completely lost the ability to report facts like this. We are supporting the war from both sides now and there seems to be no effort to come to the table to negotiate an end to it. The fact is the Ukraine is a very very flawed place and pretending otherwise is costing us all
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/03/22/zwgm-m22.html

Yep especially since two refineries have been clued due to higher net zero taxes and Labour policy, decreasing our own supply by 20%

Why is Russian jet fuel better than U.K. version