Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
How Ukraine Is Exploiting Russia's Oil Bottleneck Problem - William Spaniel
For months, Ukraine has targeted Russia's oil industry with drone strikes. Subtly, though, Ukraine's focus has been specifically on hitting refined oil products, not raw crude. This video examines why that is the case. We begin with obvious factors, like value, concentration, and distance. However, due to a less obvious bottleneck problem with shipping, the marginal value of hitting crude may in fact be nearly zero for Ukraine.
0:00 The Timeline of Ukraine's Attacks
2:20 The Relative Value of Crude and Refined Oil
4:20 The Concentration of Targets
5:46 The Geography of Attacks
7:42 Russia's Bottleneck on Ships
11:57 The Benefit of Further Sanctions
13:28 Russia's Defensive Strategy
15:12 Black Sea Parallels
