UK Maritime Services Aligns with G7 This Week

The UK has aligned its sanctions policy against Russia with the G7 price cap timeline, in effect bringing forward the ban on providing insurance services to crude oil shipments from 31^st December to 5^th December.

• It is not clear if this will impact vessels already on the water or if the UK will adopt the same transition period as the US. The US transition allows cargoes loaded before December 5^th to be discharged by January 19^th.
• The UK government said on its update this week “New legislation introduced today (3rd November) will prevent countries from using the UK’s services to transport Russian oil unless it is purchased at or below the Oil Price Cap set by the Price Cap Coalition of the G7 and Australia.”
• The ban on services, including insurance, brokerage and shipping, will be coupled with a General Licence, expected shortly, that lays the basis for an Oil Price Cap exception that will allow third countries to continue accessing services only if purchasing Russian oil at or below the cap. The level of the price cap will be set by the coalition in due course.