BERLIN: Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial powers on Friday pledged to put in place a system designed to cap Russia's income from oil sales, an idea that the nations' leaders had promised to explore at their summit in June.
The aim is to reduce Russia's revenues and, by doing so, its ability to fund its war in Ukraine, while also limiting the impact of the war on global energy prices.
In a statement issued by Germany, which chairs the G-7 this year, the ministers said they "confirm our joint political intention to finalize and implement a comprehensive prohibition of services which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally."
Providing those services "would only be allowed if the oil and petroleum products are purchased at or below a price ('the price cap') determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap," they added.
The statement did not give any figure for a potential price cap and also did not specify when the G-7 aims to finalize the plan.
It said that "we invite all countries to provide input on the price cap's design and to implement this important measure."
When they met in June in Germany, the leaders of the G-7. the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan, agreed to explore the feasibility of measures to bar imports of Russian oil above a certain level.
The price cap, pushed by U.S. President Joe Biden, could work because the service providers are mostly located in the European Union or the U.K. and thus within reach of sanctions.
To be effective, however, it would have to involve as many importing countries as possible, in particular India, where refiners have been snapping up cheap Russian oil shunned by Western traders.
The U.S. has already blocked Russian oil imports, which were small in any case.
The European Union has decided to impose a ban on the 90% of Russian oil that comes by sea, but the ban does not take effect until the end of the year.
The European Union's top executive said Friday that the bloc's electricity market "is no longer operating" amid the Ukraine war, and proposed a price cap on Russian pipeline gas.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine for the energy crisis and the dramatic rise in gas and electricity prices.
She said Europe's priority is to save energy because reserves are scarce, although the 27-nation bloc has already reached its goal of filling gas storage to 80% of capacity ahead of the winter months.
The target date was Nov.1.
"We had imagined this would take two more months," she said in a speech in the German town of Murnau.
"We have worked hard to end our dependency on Russian gas, turning instead to other suppliers. As a result, Norway now delivers more gas to Europe than Russia. Furthermore, the U.S. is supplying Europe with considerable volumes of liquid gas."
Natural gas is used to power industry, heat homes and offices, and generate electricity.
Earlier this week, Russia's Gazprom halted the flow of natural gas through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe, citing maintenance reasons.
The company said the stoppage should last three days.
Gazprom started cutting supplies through Nord Stream 1 in mid-June and Russia has reduced gas deliveries to several European countries which have sided with Ukraine in the war.
"We see that the electricity market is no longer operating because it is being severely disrupted by Putin's manipulation," von der Leyen said ahead of a meeting next week in Brussels of EU energy ministers.
The European Commission is also set to present a package of detailed measures later this month.
To tackle the price crisis, von der Leyen said she firmly believes that "it is now time for a price cap on Russian pipeline gas exported to Europe," and proposed to decouple electricity from gas prices.
Even before Russia started its war against Ukraine, many EU member states had been calling for a thorough and structural reform of the bloc's energy market because they believe that the influence of gas in setting wholesale electricity prices is disproportionate.
"Of course, we will also talk about the need to look at electricity market design in the medium term, i.e. decoupling, for example, the price of gas from general electricity pricing and, the most important issue today, tomorrow and beyond, massive investments in renewable energies," von der Leyen said.
With energy bills skyrocketing, the head of the EU's executive branch also proposed that some of the windfall profits made by electricity producers should be used to support "low-income earners and vulnerable businesses in these times of expensive electricity."