Russia spent almost 50 years building its energy market in Europe. President Vladimir Putin destroyed it in under 50 weeks. Finding a replacement will be almost impossible.
While Russia has found alternative markets for its crude oil, mostly in India, switching sales of refined products and — perhaps even more so — natural gas will take years and come at huge cost. That’s if it’s even possible to create markets as the world turns away from fossil fuels.
When Moscow’s troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, its European energy customers took fright. A market that soaked up nearly 2.5 million barrels a day of crude, another 1 million barrels of refined products and 155 billion cubic meters a year of natural gas has all but disappeared.