On January 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a sweeping set of actions to further reduce Russian revenues from energy, including blocking two major Russian oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, and imposing sanctions on a very significant number of oil-carrying vessels, opaque traders of Russian oil located in jurisdictions like Hong Kong and the UAE, Russia-based oilfield service providers, and Russian energy officials. The U.S. Department of State also took steps to block two active liquefied natural gas projects, a large Russian oil project, and third-country entities supporting Russia’s energy exports. Lastly, the United Kingdom also joined the U.S. in sanctioning Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas – which, coupled with the joint Memorandum of Understanding issued by OFAC and OFSI on January 13, is a testament to the increased cooperation between the U.S. and UK authorities. Although there are wind-downs in place for most of these entities, this round of designations is likely to cause major disruptions in the market. We summarize the new restrictions in turn below:Continue Reading U.S. and UK Intensify Sanctions Against Russia’s Oil Sector in one of the Largest Rounds of Designations Since the Outbreak of the War
Gone with the Assad
The sudden collapse of the Assad regime in Syria has led to a rapidly evolving sanctions landscape. Notably, on January 6, 2025, the United States relaxed sanctions on certain transactions with Syria when the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Syria General License 24 (GL 24), “Authorizing Transactions with Governing
U.S. to continue Section 301 tariffs, adding or increasing tariffs on China’s high-tech “new three”
On May 14, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published its report on the four-year review of the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese-origin goods first imposed in 2018. The report concludes that the tariffs have been effective, but China has not yet eliminated the technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices at issue in the
A review of the latest UK sanctions against Russia and how they align with the EU’s measures
In response to the on-going war in Ukraine, the UK enacted several new sanctions against Russia on July 21, 2022. These sanctions are far-reaching and will place restrictions on a variety of industries such as oil, insurance, energy, gold, and coal, as well as to the provision of professional and business services to Russia.
While