The economic war between Russia and the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine took a new twist this week. In another effort to undermine Russia's oil revenues, Group of Seven finance ministers agreed to place price caps on Russian oil.

In essence, G7 countries are joining forces to form a monopsony or a buyers' cartel to get a better price for buyer members while slashing the revenues for Russia's oil companies.

Will this policy work? It doesn't seem so for a couple of reasons.

First, some G7 countries, like the U.S., have already cut off oil purchases from Russia, or, like Canada, buy very little from Russia. Germany, France and Italy have already limited imports as part of an earlier EU deal. Thus, the price caps sound more like a symbolic measure than something of substance.

Second, creating a buyers' cartel in a vast market runs to a couple of limitations outlined in economic textbooks. The cartel puts in place severe penalties for non-complying members. The cartel members are the sole buyers of the product.

Juscelino Colares, a Case Western Reserve University professor, thinks the G7 buyers' cartel violates the second condition, as too many buyers will still stay with Russian oil.

"Together with the 32 countries that have refused to condemn Russia, making up well more than half of the world's population, China, India, and Pakistan are current buyers of Russian oil," Colares told International Business Times in an email. "Under such circumstances, any attempt at a 'buyers' cartel' is doomed from the start, as the list of buyers among these 32 countries can only increase."

Bob Bilbruck, CEO at global consulting service firm Captjur, thinks that price caps on Russian oil are a horrible idea and another example of how G7 policies backfire.

"Russia will simply pivot and sell their oil to India and China, which will be happy to buy it from them and probably at a discount," he told IBT in an email. "Regarding Russia's view, they would rather sell at a discount to China and India than have policy dictated to them by the G7 nations."

Campbell Faulkner, Senior Vice President and Chief Data Analyst at OTC Global Holdings, is on the same page.

"It's a naive idea born out by the EU block not realizing they have little power to implement such a "global" coordinated action," Faulkner told IBT. "All it takes is a few defectors like China, India, and a few others for the action to be completely inconsequential."

Worse, with so many alternative buyers for Russian oil, Colares sees one more challenge to the oil price caps: Moscow can stop selling oil to the G7 altogether. And that would result in soaring oil prices in global markets and higher revenues for Russian oil companies.

Meanwhile, soaring oil prices would mean higher inflation for G7 countries and the rest of the world.

Is it what the G7 governments would like to see? Obviously, not.

But is there another alternative to bring oil prices down? Eliminating some unnecessary climate policies that limit oil supplies might be a start.

"For the G7, the best alternative is to forgo the current supply constraints its members impose on their own domestic oil production," Colares said.

"But that requires at least a temporary suspension of more items in their 'climate' agendas. And that, at least for now, the West does not seem ready to give up.

"In short: Game Putin."

Russia