On 24th February 2025 (the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), the European Union (EU) issued its 16th package of sanctions against Russia. These include measures targeting Russia’s energy, trade, infrastructure, and transport sectors (among others) found in Council Regulation (EU) 2025/395, which further amends Council Regulation (EU) 833/2014 (the “Regulation”). Key highlights relating to shipping include:
Commodities
Aluminium - A direct import ban into the EU from Russia of primary aluminium (previous measures included a prohibition on importing processed aluminium goods from Russia). During an initial 12-month transitional period, a quota mechanism has been introduced, allowing for 275,000 tonnes of aluminium (i.e. 80% of EU imports in 2024). By the end of 2026, no Russian aluminium can be imported into the EU.
Additional export bans have been placed on chemicals, chrome, and other products essential for precision machine tools, crucial for Russia's industrial and military capabilities.
The existing prohibition on providing goods, technology, and services for the completion of Russian LNG projects has been extended to apply to crude oil projects in Russia, such as the Vostok oil project. Members are reminded that contracts for the transhipment of Russian LNG within the EU (for the avoidance of doubt, transhipment in this context would include STS transhipment and where cargo is discharged ashore temporarily and then reloaded onto a ship) that were signed before June 2024 are subject to a wind-down period, up until 26th March 2025.
Full advisory at the following link.