AIBU to think buying Russian oil again makes no sense?

[Secretseverywhere]

UK to start buying Russian oil again. I know the rise in petrol prices is unpopular. I flinch every time I pull into the forecourt and see the price! However this seems bonkers to me so we will be enabling Russia to keep funding the war in Ukraine whilst aiding Ukraine to defend itself.

How does it end? It just seems like we ( and the U.S. who are also buying) are just dragging this mess out.

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.

The Ukrainians are apparently seeking clarification, aren’t we all?

www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/may/20/keir-starmer-wes-streeting-labour-leadership-kemi-badenoch-pmqs-conservatives-reform-uk-politics-latest-news-updates

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.😏

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

No. But we could at least apply it to fuel for leisure/non essential activities.

The aviation industry has to adjust to varying traffic conditions all the time. Covid, Volcanic eruptions etc.

Then of course there is always the option of paying more. For none Russian sourced fuel.

People wonder why countries don't take sanctions seriously. Here is a perfect demonstration of why.

I do believe the government made moves in 2025 to allow more drilling in the North Sea. The UK doesn’t own any oil fields itself, they’re all privately owned.

The issues are that it’s expensive, required rebuilding infrastructure that’s been stripped, and won’t meet the demand. The North Sea is also extremely hostile, as far as environments go.

It’s ultimately a lot of investment for not enough in return. The basin is a finite resource that is already largely depleted. Russia, comparatively, has already well established infrastructure, and an abundance of oil and other natural resources.

The existing oil sanctions have been having a impact on Russia, even before closing the third-country loophole. Russia's oil export revenues dropped from nearly 40% of it's federal budget in 2022 to 25% in 2025.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is wonderful for Putin. It raises the price of oil worldwide – so he earns more for every barrel he sells to all the other countries buying it, even when sales to the UK and EU are banned.

Starting the war on Iran was madness. The closure of the Strait was predicted by Trump's own Joint Chiefs of Staff. 🤷‍♀️

Assessing the impacts of oil sanctions on Russia
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114739

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/enforce-sanctions-to-prevent-russia-from-benefitting-in-a-prolonged-iran-crisis/

Ok, but that's c. 1 milion jobs in UK. How are you replacing them?

I genuinely don’t know tbh. This just seems like madness though. So we buy fuel from Russia ( via third parties) which funds military actions in Ukraine. At the same time we give Ukraine enough aid to try and make it operationally pointless for Russia.

Essenti we are paying billions of pounds to (hopefully) maintain a stalemate?

Well do you think that all the world's oil problems will be over by then and we'll have a thriving industrial economy built on sunshine, or do you think that it might be sensible to use all of our own resources more wisely?

Starmer needs to sort Milliband and his green shit out. We need to start North Sea oils again

AFAIK the licences for the big fields are currently being blocked.

There is one field earmarked for development that could supply 5% of the UKs gas. This gas would all end up in the UK or transit through the UKs pipeline system as it doesn't make much sense to liquefy it and send it somewhere else.

I don't understand the argument of why we should keep these fields undeveloped while continuing to order oil from elsewhere. First there is the transport costs (economic and environmental) and then there is the economic benefit in terms of jobs. If we are going to continue to use the oil/gas, we might as well produce it here. If we weren't actually going to use it in the UK ourselves it might be a different matter. But the chance of replacing gas as a primary energy source in the short term is close to zero.

Anyway my Norweigian mate is happy. Both for the jobs, and the money we are sending their way.

Presumably if everyone stays at home they will spend into the economy here.

Or people could just pay the premium for sourcing the fuel from an unsanctioned place.

Not causing the closures of these two major refineries via taxes, which amount to 20% of our production would be a start.

Grangemouth Refinery - Scotland's only oil refinery permanently ceased crude oil processing operations, transitioning instead into an import terminal.

Lindsey Oil Refinery (North East Lincolnshire)

@GasPanic they want to keep those fields undeveloped in order to polish their net zero halos while everyone's standard of living goes down the tubes. If I hear one more person say that Starmer is a decent man I think I'll scream.

They are spending into the economy here by buying flights.

More expensive means fewer sold (because spending availability is finite) means fewer jobs.

If it's all about jobs and we want the fuel maybe we should drill for some of our own then and generate our own jobs in the process.

Funding both sides makes no sense.

We should make a decision. Either we want cheap flights or we want to support Ukraine.

It will also benefit the environment as air travel has a large effect on CO2 production so reducing non essential travel will help that.

If the conservatives had started in December 2022 we would have been almost there. But they kept buying from Russia via India

Instead Miliband are making it harder for future governments to drill for oil

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2205327/miliband-north-sea-drilling-ban-law-energy-independence-bill-fracking

Extract - Labour is to introduce a legal ban on new oil and gas drilling in Britain, enshrining in legislation a prohibition that would make it far harder for any future government to reverse course on North Sea exploration.
The measure will form part of the energy independence bill, one of a raft of new laws set out by the King during the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday. It will convert Ed Miliband's existing temporary moratorium on new drilling into a permanent legal ban, and will also prohibit onshore fracking.

It’s disgusting - I do wonder if it’s deliberate to damage the U.K. or make money in some way. If we drill for our own oil it means the oil travels less distance, creates local jobs, keeps costs lower, helps our economy. If these politicians believe net zero is the way why would we use energy to transport oil here!