EU Adopts New Sanctions to End Illicit Russian Oil Exports

The European Commission formally adopted its latest sanctions against Russia on June 23, which include measures to clamp down on offshore tanker transfers of Russian oil and a ban on crude flows via the northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline.
Aiming mostly at blocking the circumvention of existing sanctions again Moscow over its war in Ukraine, the EU's 11th sanctions package includes provisions to ban ships from EU ports if the vessel is suspected of engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of oil in breach of the Russian oil import ban or G7 Coalition price cap, S&P Global Platts reported.
The commission said the ban on access to EU ports will also apply, if vessels manipulate or turn off their navigation tracking system when transporting Russian oil or fail to notify the competent authority at least 48 hours in advance about a ship-to-ship transfer occurring within the Exclusive Economic Zone of a member state or within 12 nautical miles from the baseline of that member state's coast.
Russian oil trade flows via offshore ship-to-ship transfer and "dark" tanker voyages to obscure the origin and destination of the trade have soared since the Western sanctions targeted Moscow's key oil revenues in the wake of the Ukraine war.