The United States will not pressure allies to follow through on its actions to ban Russian oil and energy imports, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday.
“We (US) are not very dependent on Russian oil and we are not at all dependent on Russian gas. We know that our allies around the world may not be in that same position. And so we are not asking them to do the same.” , Granholm told CNBC in an interview.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday imposed an immediate ban on imports of Russian oil and other energy sources in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
Granholm also said the United States is talking to other nations about releasing additional oil reserves.
“We are in active discussion with our allies. As you know, we just made a collective release of 60 million barrels as a class action with the International Energy Agency last week,” Granholm said.
“And we will be having more discussions both internally in the US and with our allies as well,” he added.
Granholm said the US appeals to all oil producers in the world to increase supply.
“We have to offset eight and a half million barrels of Russian oil that could potentially come out,” he said.
An immediate ban on Russian oil imports will drive up US energy prices, but Biden said the move was necessary to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine.
Russia describes its actions as a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and remove the country’s leaders that the Russian government calls neo-Nazis.
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