The Biden Administration is set to slap more sanctions on Russia’s oil exports by targeting tankers hauling Russian crude and products, sources familiar with the outgoing administration’s plans have told Reuters.
“It is going to be a big package,” one of Reuters’s sources said.
The current Administration plans to target vessels that carry Russian oil above the $60 per barrel price cap that Western allies have imposed on Russian crude and petroleum products. The scope of the upcoming sanctions is expected to include persons involved in networks that trade Russia’s oil above the G7 price cap, according to the sources.
The price cap mechanism set by the G7 and the EU says that Russian crude shipments to third countries can use Western insurance and financing if cargoes are sold at or below the $60-a-barrel ceiling. The measure took effect at the end of 2022 when the EU imposed an embargo on imports of Russian crude oil.
The Biden Administration is looking to stifle Russia’s oil revenues and support Ukraine more ahead of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has said that the U.S. cost of supporting Ukraine is too high.
The new U.S. sanctions would add to the already tightened measures against Russian oil exports that the UK and the European Union have recently announced.
European countries have been ramping up sanctions pressure on Russia as they look to reduce Vladimir Putin’s oil revenues that fund the war in Ukraine.
The UK and the European Union announced in the middle of December a raft of new sanctions that target Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers enabling oil trade.
The UK went further, sanctioning two trading firms, which it described as “key lynchpins in enabling the trading of Putin’s precious oil.”
The UK’s latest sanctions came a day after the EU adopted the 15th package of sanctions against Russia, which targets 52 new vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet, increasing the total number of such listings to 79. These non-EU vessels are subject to a port access ban and a ban on the provision of services.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
