Who's propping up Russian oil?

0:01NPR

0:11This is The Indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darian Woods, and today I'm joined by NPR's International affairs correspondent, Jackie Northam. Hey, Darian. Good to be here. Great to have you too. And today we're going to talk about sanctions, specifically sanctions against Russia. And there are a lot of them. The U.S. and many of its allies have slapped more than 5 ,000 sanctions on Russia since it invaded Ukraine. And the breadth of these sanctions is pretty stunning. They're targeting everything from Russia's energy to its oligarchs. All of this is to try to make it more difficult for the Kremlin to finance the war.

0:45Yeah, and they have had an effect. We're seeing cracks in Russia's economy, and President Vladimir Putin has had to jack up taxes and interest rates, and hundreds of billions of dollars have been drained from Russia's foreign currency reserves. And yet, here we are, three and a half years later, and the war in Ukraine is still grinding on. And it turns out that those thousands of sanctions have not brought the Kremlin to its knees. Not at all. You know, that's because there's a lot of hypocrisy out there. You have countries professing support for Ukraine, but then turn a blind eye when it comes to things like buying Russian oil and gas.

1:22Yeah, and that Russian oil and gas is going for very cheap these days. It's very attractive for the buyers. It sure is. So today on the show, which countries are playing both sides of the fence? How are they getting around the sanctions? And what it means for the ongoing conflict? And spoiler alert, not only are these countries U.S. allies, the U.S. is benefiting too.

2:08endorsement of AT &T. When you compare, there's no comparison. AT &T. This message comes from LinkedIn ads. One of the hardest parts about B2B marketing is reaching the right audience. That's why you need LinkedIn ads. You can target your buyers by job title, company, role, seniority, and skills. All the professionals you need to reach in one place. Get a$250 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to linkedin.com slash nprpod. That's linkedin.com slash nprpod. Terms and conditions apply. Only on LinkedIn ads. So, Darian, there are plenty of countries we could point to that are playing a double game when it comes to Russian sanctions.

2:52Right. Providing diplomatic and financial support for Ukraine while at the same time buying Russian oil and gas. This helps finance the Kremlin's war machine. It does. But one of the things I find really interesting about this story is how this is playing out in Taiwan. Taiwan. You would think it would be fully on board with sanctions. You know, it faces a similar situation to Ukraine. It's next door to a huge, powerful authoritarian state that wants to grab back territory they think is theirs. Right. But here's the thing. As of now, Taiwan has become the world's largest importer of Russian naphtha.

3:30Have you heard of naphtha, Darian? I actually hadn't until you pitched this story. Now I know a lot about it. Good. Okay, so now you know naphtha is an oil product that's used for really everything from paint thinner to jet fuel. And it's also a critical element in the production of semiconductors. And as we know, Taiwan is a major semiconductor manufacturing hub. It's the home of the world's largest chip builder, TSMC. Exactly. And we found out about Taiwan's NAPLA imports from a report that came out recently, and it looked at how Taiwan is playing this double game when it comes to sanctions on Russia.

4:09It was written by a group of NGOs who carefully charted what Taiwan is doing. So I guess we are nerds or experts, depending on how you look at it, who spend a lot of our time tracking Russian fossil fuel export revenues. That's Isaac Levi, and he's with the Finnish-based Center for Research Energy and Clean Air. And it's one of the groups that wrote the report on Taiwan and how it's handling sanctions on Russia. They see themselves kind of as an ally to Ukraine. They provide financial aid to Ukraine, and they've imposed some sanctions, although limited, on Russia. Now, most of those sanctions are on high-tech goods.

4:44But Taiwan didn't place any restrictions on buying Russian fossil fuels for oil and gas. And Isaac says what happened next was predictable. When we see that there are countries or regions that don't have sanctions or any bans legal measures to prohibit companies buying Russian fossil fuels, they will just do whatever is in their best interest to maximize their profits. Now, according to Isaac's group, the Taiwanese government did stop importing naphtha over the past couple of years. But the private sector continues to buy it. and one company in particular, the Formosa Petrochemical Corporation.

5:22And its imports in Naphtha account for about 90 % of the island's total imports. In fact, Isaac says those purchases have gone up sixfold since the start of the war. It's now around$4.9 billion. And close to$2 billion of those funds are going straight into the Kremlin's coffers. It's enough money for the Russian state to pay for 170 ,000 Gebera drones that raid havoc and cause huge amount of destruction and death in Ukraine each day. It is curious that Taiwan is comfortable depending on Russia for naphtha, especially as Moscow and Beijing have close ties and China claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

6:03That's right. And that's not lost on members of Taiwan's government. There are concerns about vulnerability if, say, Beijing puts pressure on the Kremlin to halt all shipments of naphtha, or even the small amount of coal it gets from Russia. It could create real economic or national security concerns. Okay, but the other side of the equation is that for the Formosa Petrochemical Company, it's getting a pretty good deal on naphtha. It sure is. Isaac says Russia is giving about a 5 % discount on average from the next biggest supplier, which is the United Arab Emirates. And you know, that may not sound like a lot, But Taiwan is forking over billions of dollars for Russian naphtha, while its financial support to Ukraine is just around$100 million.

6:48And that's according to the Central European Institute of Asian Studies. So there is some hypocrisy. Although I would say Taiwan isn't alone in this. Yeah, that is true. We've been hearing President Trump recently demanding Europe and NATO allies stop buying oil and gas from Russia. And the EU has drastically reduced its imports since the war began. It had relied heavily on Russian energy, but now imports have plummeted. But the main holdouts are Hungary and Slovakia, and they've actually increased imports since the war began. Yeah, and outside of the EU, there are other U.S. allies that have developed voracious appetites for cheap Russian oil, and Turkey is a major buyer.

7:31And let's not forget India. Trump slapped a 25 % tariff on imports of Indian goods because of its purchases of Russian oil. That was on top of a 25 % tariff it already had on place. Now, it is striking that Trump singled out India for its tariffs while sparing Turkey and Hungary. Well, you know, Darian, there's been a lot of speculation that Trump was frustrated by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reluctance to credit him for brokering the India-Pakistan ceasefire. The U.S. could also be accused of hypocrisy, though. It's still buying refined oil products made from Russian crude in countries like India.

8:08That's right. Isaac says the U.S. spends over a billion dollars every year on refined products, such as gasoline and fertilizers and jet fuel, from Russia that have been processed in other countries. So the U.S. is still dependent on Russian energy as well. So back to Taiwan, the Trump administration hasn't commented on the Naphtha imports so far, but Taiwanese government ministers have voiced concerns that it represents a security concern. They did. And here's an update since I started reporting the story. After Isaac's report on Naphtha's importance came out, the government said the Formosa Petrochemical Corporation's contracts for Russian Naphtha were about to expire and that the company would stop buying it in the future.

8:53For Europe's part, its goal is to end Russian imports by 2027, although Hungary and Slovakia seem to be dragging their feet. They are. Meanwhile, you know, Darian, here in the U.S., we're not hearing of any plans so far to limit Russian energy imports here. Jackie, thank you so much for dropping by with this fascinating piece on geo-economics. Really appreciate it. Thanks very much, Darian. This episode was produced by Julia Ritchie with engineering by Kweisi Lee. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Kinkannon is the show's editor and The Indicator is a production of NPR.

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