The de facto buyers’ strike on Russian crude that began a month ago propelled oil prices to their highest levels in years. Now the real effects are starting to create a second wave of impact on oil markets. Major energy companies and commodity-trading houses balked at buying crude oil from Russia in the days following the invasion of Ukraine . Banks also stopped financing these trades, shippers refused to load cargoes and insurers stopped covering them, fearful of running afoul of sanctions or upsetting company stakeholders. Oil is typically shipped around three weeks after a deal is struck, meaning that the drop in deal making in the early days of the war led to real disruptions in supply starting in the past week. The turmoil is being strongly felt in Europe, where prices for diesel, which powers […]