EU banned seaborne Russian crude imports
Russian sanctions not watertight
Moscow will likely still be able to find buyers and ships for its exports of crude and products despite the measures
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions on Russian crude and products have had significant impacts on the global tanker markets. Pre-war trade flows have been disrupted, redirected or cut altogether in a worldwide reshuffling of hydrocarbon supply, while the use of sanctions-busting measures has picked up and led to a grey market that includes disguising the origin of cargoes and using tankers not aligned to key insurance clubs. And the effects continue to reverberate with the recent introduction of the G7 price cap and the EU’s import bans. The EU banned seaborne Russian crude imports on 5 December last year and a similar ban on product shipments came into force on
Also in this section
8 December 2025
The Caribbean country’s role in the global oil market is significantly diminished, but disruptions caused by outright conflict would still have implications for US Gulf Coast refineries
5 December 2025
Mistaken assumptions around an oil bull run that never happened are a warning over the talk of a supply glut
4 December 2025
Time is running out for Lukoil and Rosneft to divest international assets that will be mostly rendered useless to them when the US sanctions deadline arrives in mid-December
3 December 2025
Aramco’s pursuit of $30b in US gas partnerships marks a strategic pivot. The US gains capital and certainty; Saudi Arabia gains access, flexibility and a new export future
