High shipping costs have created a $1 billion loophole for Russia to evade oil price cap, report says

• Russia could have made $1.2 billion through a loophole in the oil price cap mechanism, per an FT report.
• The extra revenue came in the form of higher shipping costs on its crude sent to India.
• Observers have criticized the price cap for its ineffectiveness at crimping Russia's war revenue.

Russia could have made over a billion dollars by hiking its oil shipping costs, taking an advantage of a loophole in the western oil price cap, according to a Financial Times report this week.

Russian oil producers have been selling crude to India below the $60 price cap, but have inflated shipping costs in a possible attempt to evade price cap rules, according to an FT analysis published Monday.