The sanctions would forbid the purchase of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia delivered to member states by sea but include a temporary exemption for pipeline crude, European Council President Charles Michel said late on Monday during a summit in Brussels.
The European Commission has proposed to ban seaborne crude oil six months from inaction, while refined petroleum products would be halted in eight months, according to people familiar with the most recent version of the proposal. Shipments of oil through the giant Druzhba pipeline to central Europe will be spared until a technical solution is found that satisfies the energy needs of Hungary and other landlocked nations.
“We should be able to soon return to the issue of the remaining 10% of pipeline oil,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference early on Tuesday. The package also proposes a ban on insurance related to shipping oil to third countries, but it won’t take effect until six months after the adoption of the measures, from the previously proposed three-month transition, the people said. That adds to a longer list of concessions since the proposal was originally put forward by the EU’s executive arm in May.
Russia shipped about 720,000 barrels a day of crude to European refineries through its main pipeline to the region last year. That compares with seaborne volumes of 1.57 million barrels a day from its Baltic, Black Sea and Arctic ports.Cutting three more Russian banks off the SWIFT international payments system, including Russia’s largest lender Sberbank.
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