Denmark will inspect Russian vessels passing through its waters without Western insurance and likely to pose a threat to the environment.
Denmark can block Russian oil exports
The EU plans to instruct Denmark to inspect and potentially block tankers carrying Russian oil passing through its waters amid attempts by Western countries to impose a "price ceiling" on it, which the Russian Federation has learned to avoid.
This was reported by The Financial Times concerning three sources familiar with the negotiations in Brussels.
They said that Denmark would inspect tankers passing through its waters without Western insurance under laws allowing states to inspect vessels they deem to threaten the environment.
The key point is ensuring compliance with insurance regulations. Currently, this is done very unsystematically, and the coastal states have the right to see the evidence, said one of the interlocutors of the publication.
Officials say requiring adequate insurance from reputable firms is justified, given that many Russian oil shipments are carried by the so-called "shadow fleet" of older vessels, which are more likely to break down or spill oil, threatening a major environmental disaster.
Officials familiar with the plans say their implementation depends on the Danish navy's ability to stop and inspect the tankers and raise questions about what Copenhagen will do if the vessel refuses to quit.
All Russian oil shipped via the Baltic Sea, which is about 60 percent of total oil exports by sea, crosses the narrow Danish straits on its way to international markets.
The proposal comes after Western officials admitted that "almost none" of Russian oil exports were sold below the $60-a-barrel "ceiling" last month, 11 months after the G7 introduced the measure in response to a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the report says.
The G7 limit requires Western ship insurers to cover only those Russian cargoes for which oil has been sold for less than $60 a barrel. However, many tankers carrying Russian oil are suspected of sailing with falsified financial statements or insurance from non-Western companies.
The EU is considering other measures as part of the new sanctions package, which should be formally discussed by EU member states this week. They include sanctions against shipping companies that sell their old vessels to the Russian "shadow fleet" and against countries that allow these vessels to fly under their national flag.
The Pentagon received Russian oil to circumvent sanctions
An investigation by The Washington Post says that after the ban on Russian oil was imposed, the Motor Oil Hellas refinery in the Aegean Sea in Greece, which serves the US military, adapted quickly.
Within months, the company told investors it had stopped accepting the banned oil and had found other sources instead. But there was a reason why Russian oil, at least on paper, could be so easily removed from the supply chain.
The Washington Post reviewed data on the shipping and trade of Russian oil and found that oil products originating in Russia continued to flow to a Greek refinery.
However, this oil has taken a new route through an oil storage facility in Turkey. Ownership of the oil changed hands several times before it reached Greece, thus obscuring the Russian origin.
Journalists write that this shows the porous nature of sanctions and the inability to enforce them aggressively.
It was not possible to determine the exact amount of fuel oil of Russian origin in the products purchased by the Pentagon. These products are refined using several ingredients that are untraceable during production.
In March 2022, the Pentagon signed new contracts worth nearly $1 billion with a Greek oil refinery.
