EU Adds 27 Russian Vessels to List of Entities Under Sanctions

The European Union will add 27 vessels, including oil and liquefied natural gas tankers, to its list of entities under sanctions as part of its latest measures against Russia, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

EU countries adopted the 14th package of sanctions against Russia earlier on Monday. These included a ban on trans-shipments of Russian LNG off EU ports that will take effect after 9-month transition period. The full details will be published later in the EU’s Official Journal.

The latest list, seen by Reuters, includes 19 tankers, including two Russian floating gas storage units (FSU) – the Saam and Koryak – as well as ships run by Russia’s state-owned shipping firm Sovcomflot.

Owned by Russia’s top LNG exporter Novatek, the two ships – already under US sanctions – were meant for trans-shipping LNG from its new Arctic LNG 2 project. Russia has a shortage of ice-class LNG ships and relies on trans-shipments to keep those it has in the Baltic Sea area.

The list also includes ships that have transported defense equipment for Russia as well as the Enisey cargo ship, which the EU says has moved stolen Ukrainian grains.

Moscow has been more adept than western powers expected at circumventing sanctions, including the Group of Seven (G7) nations price cap on Russian oil.

Russian oil exporters are charging more for their oil in major market India than at any time since the war in Ukraine started as a growing number of shippers and intermediaries take part in the trade.

The impact of the listing may not be immediate given the vessels already operate around western restrictions.

However, it is likely to complicate Russia’s ambitions to gain a fifth of the global LNG market share by 2030-2035 from around 8% now.

“If you’re looking for spare parts, engineers, insurance, financing, in some cases local pilots – anything that involves some contact with the EU in the broadest sense, including countries mirroring EU sanctions – this all will become more difficult. For instance, navigation, safety and security equipment,” Nicoleta Tuominen, a partner at Dentons law firm, told Reuters.

“If an EU company developed such a system, others could fix it, but not to the same standard. The EU does not have the extra-territorial reach of US sanctions nor their leverage over certain flag states. Tankers are put on the sanctions list because ownership in that sector is elusive and at least this way, you might see some impact at some point.”

The following is a list of vessels to be added to the EU’s official journal:

(Reporting by Julia Payne, additional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo and Paul Carsten in LondonEditing by Gareth Jones and Barbara Lewis)

Topics Europe Russia