Since March 2022, Great Britain has imported oil from Russia in the amount of more than £200 million, although it did not appear in official statistics as a Russian import — this is because the Russian Federation uses loopholes in the restrictions introduced by London.
The Times writes about it.
Just one British port, Immingham, has received a total of around £23 million worth of Russian oil since March, which was registered as an import from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. And to the port of Thamesport, in the east of London, oil from Russia in the amount of £130 million arrived. It was classified as an import from Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
A total of £778 million worth of Russian oil has arrived at ten British ports since March. Around £200m of this amount is for June and July 2022, when Britain is said to have imported no Russian oil at all, according to official figures. But the British Office for National Statistics takes into account the sending country, not the oil producer, and if we take this factor into account, almost £80 million in June and July is due to the import of Russian oil.
The Times was able to track at least four tankers that were leaving Russia and importing oil to British territory already after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two of them used a scheme to transfer oil from ship to ship to hide its origin. This is one of the most common methods, but due to the fact that tankers often turn off their transponders and are not tracked by the systems, it is difficult to establish the actual number of such cases.
- At the beginning of September, the USA announced that the G7 countries would set a price limit for Russian oil by December 5. Countries want to see it at the level of $40-60 per barrel, which will seriously affect Russian revenues. The U.S. Treasury proposes to limit the price of Russian oil to $60 per barrel.
- In early November, the G7 and Australia agreed to establish a fixed ceiling price for Russian oil instead of a floating interest rate.
- In addition, there are restrictions on Russian oil from the European Union. Within the eighth package of sanctions, there is a ban on the transportation of oil to third countries at a price above the limit. Britain has also synchronized its sanctions with European ones.