Page 42 - RusRPTJul24

international investigations into Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine, including the one conducted by the ICC."
European Union member states agreed on the details of the EU’s fourteenth sanctions package against Russia in July. The most notable feature of the package is that it includes the EU’s first sanctions against Russian gas trade. However, the sanctions do not target remaining European gas purchases from Russia, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, which rose in the EU even as Russia cut off Gazprom from most of its European export markets.
The EU is banning the transshipment of Russian LNG—complicating Russian exports to Asia—as well as investment into and servicing of Russia’s three new Arctic and Baltic LNG projects.
These sanctions complement recent restrictions announced by the US Government that target Russia’s Arctic energy projects, ultimately trying to stifle these developments to limit Russia’s pivot to Asian energy markets. The EU transshipment sanctions target shipments worth more than $3.6bn annually, even though this is only a small fraction of Russia’s current LNG exports.
The EU is also adding more companies to its sanctions list (including in third countries that have served as intermediaries); expanding export controls on machinery, chemical goods, and electronics; sanctioning vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet that are used to transfer oil to circumvent the G7 oil price cap; and forbidding EU firms operating outside of Russia from connecting to SPFS, Russia’s equivalent of the SWIFT financial transfer system. However, Germany managed to negotiate a postponement for a provision affecting companies whose civilian products are imported to Russia (currently a so-called “no Russia” clause only covers military and dual-use goods).
The main point of the program was the ban on transshipment of Russian LNG in EU ports for the purpose of export to third countries. The Europeans cannot ban direct supplies to the EU - Belgium, Spain and partly France are directly dependent on Russian liquefied gas. But direct exports to the EU will still suffer - Novatek will no longer be able to supply gas from the Cryogas-Vysotsk project to Sweden and Finland.
The ban on transshipment in Europe for shipment to third countries will affect approximately 4–6 million tons of Russian gas; In total, Russia exported 32.3 million tons in 2023. The main victim will be the same Novatek, which may need to renegotiate almost all contracts of its Yamal LNG megaproject.
The ban on LNG transshipment in Europe is the first sanctions measure against Russian gas during the entire war, FT notes. After the abandonment of Russian pipeline gas and the explosion of Nord Stream, European buyers refocused on Russian LNG - its exports to the EU increased by 40% in the first year and a half of the war.
Other restrictions include the introduction of expanded compliance for exports to Russia through third countries. European companies will not only have to ensure that their own operations in third countries comply with export
42 RUSSIA Country Report July 2024 www.intellinews.com