The European Commission is proposing to ban the sale of tankers for the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products to Russia. This will help to prevent the circumvention of Western sanctions on Russian oil by means of a "shadow" fleet of tankers, the Commission's proposal states.
Source. This was reported by Reuters.
The proposal, which was discussed by EU ambassadors on Friday, also stipulates that the sale of tankers to third countries should include contractual terms that prohibit their resale to Russia. Also, they cannot be used to transport Russian crude oil or oil products that violate Western price restrictions – $60 per barrel of crude oil.
"The price cap mechanism is based on a certification process that allows participants in the supply chain of Russian marine oil to demonstrate that it was purchased at or below the price cap," the Commission's proposal says.
In October, the United States blacklisted two tankers, the Yasa Golden Bosphorus and the SCF Primorye, registered to companies from Turkey and the UAE. In November, the sanctions list included three more vessels – Kazan, Ligovsky Prospekt and NS Century – owned by shipping operators in Dubai. All of them were found to have violated the price ceiling.
Dozens of shipping companies from 30 countries are under investigation by the US Treasury Department, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. According to him, ship operators have been sent inquiries about 100 vessels, which is almost the entire "shadow" fleet that Russian oil companies managed to assemble by buying up old tankers intended for scrap.
Background. As reported, the price of Russian oil fell below $60 after sanctions against the Russian "shadow fleet".