Moscow will forbid domestic companies from selling Russian oil under any price cap, and is willing to dial down production to compensate for the lost exports, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Sunday, according to Russian news agency TASS.

The comments come one day before an EU embargo on seaborne Russian oil takes effect, and just as EU countries agreed on a price cap of $60 per barrel for sales of Russian oil to non-EU countries that EU-based companies, like shippers and insurers, would be allowed to participate in.

The price cap, backed by the G7, is an attempt to allow those shunned volumes of Russian oil to still be sold onto the global market, thus avoiding supply shortfalls and the ensuing skyrocketing prices.

But Novak said Russia “will only sell oil and oil products to those countries which will work with us on market conditions, even if we have to somewhat cut production,” according to the TASS report.

[So they’re willing to take in even less revenue to respond to a revenue cut? The US could take advantage of this by vastly expanding American production to fill the gap. Alas, we have Joe Biden in charge. — Ed]