A few days before the inauguration of the American president-elect, Donald Trump, on January 20, the Treasury Department detailed a series of sanctions directed, among others, at two of the main Russian companies in the sector, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz. Joe Biden, apart from these announcements, attacked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Daleep Singh, White House deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the sanctions were “the largest ever imposed” by the United States on the Russian energy sector.
“These sanctions will severely affect all key links in the Russian oil production and distribution chain,” he added.
They could cause “an increase in the price of gasoline,” admitted US President Joe Biden during a press conference at the White House, “between three and four cents per gallon.”
“But it will have a much deeper impact on Russia’s ability to continue acting as it does in its conduct of the war,” he insisted. According to him, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is in a “bad situation” and it is “really important not to give him any respite.”
Reduce “Russia’s war treasure”
London also sanctioned these two companies, “which alone produce more than a million barrels of oil a day, or a value of about 23 billion dollars (22.5 billion euros) a year at current prices.”
A decision immediately denounced as “unjustified and illegitimate” by Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of the large state group Gazprom, cited by Russian press agencies.
The British Foreign Office also assured that oil revenues are “vital to Russia’s war economy and will represent around a quarter of the entire Russian budget in 2023.”
“Tackling the oil companies will deplete Russia’s war chest, and every ruble we take out of Putin’s hands will help save Ukrainian lives,” said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Washington also announced sanctions on Friday against nearly 200 oil tankers and LNG vessels operating from Russia and presenting themselves as part of Moscow’s “ghost fleet.”
However, several of the attacked vessels are registered under the flags of Barbados and Panama.
Trading Leverage
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the US and British measures that “deal a significant blow to the financial foundation of the Russian war machine.”
Beyond producers and vessels, US sanctions also target the entire sector, particularly a number of middlemen, oilfield service providers and political leaders in the sector.
These US sanctions also include a ban on the provision of services offered by US companies specialized in the oil sector to the affected companies, in particular in terms of assistance in the extraction and production of oil products.
It will take effect on January 27, the Treasury Department said. More generally, the United States gives itself the opportunity to “impose sanctions on any person who wishes to operate or has operated in the Russian energy sector,” according to a ministry statement.
These sanctions are in addition to the numerous measures already implemented, including the introduction of a maximum price for Russian oil, from December 2022.
On November 21, Washington announced a series of restrictions aimed at around fifty Russian banking establishments, including Gazprom’s financial subsidiary, Gazprombank, to already reduce income from the sale of hydrocarbons.
Asked about the fate of these sanctions during the next government, a senior US official estimated, during an exchange with the press, that it was “entirely up to him to decide if, when and under what conditions he could lift the sanctions.” we have launched.
He added that these measures would provide – by weakening Moscow – “important leverage” for both the Donald Trump administration and Ukraine “to negotiate a just and lasting peace.”
The sanctions result in the freezing of assets held directly or indirectly by targeted companies in the United States, as well as prohibiting US-based companies, or US citizens, from trading with these targets of the sanctions. , at the risk of being sanctioned. Successively.
Source: BFM TV
