On May 23, 2025, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 25 (GL 25), authorizing transactions prohibited by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations, effectively lifting sanctions on Syria. This comes 10...more
5/30/2025
/ Banking Sector ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
EU ,
Foreign Policy ,
Investment ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Syria ,
Trump Administration ,
UK
On January 10, 2025, the Biden Administration issued a broad sanctions package targeting the Russian energy sector, 10 days in advance of the transition to the incoming Trump Administration. The new sanctions also added two...more
1/14/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Blocked Person ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
U.S. Treasury ,
UK
Contemporaneous with the European Union’s adoption of its 13th package of Russia sanctions, on February 23, 2024, the United States imposed sanctions against nearly 500 targets in continued response to Russia’s aggression...more
2/27/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
Defense Sector ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Procurement Systems ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinTech ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Military Conflict ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Payment Systems ,
Russia ,
Russian Military Procurement ,
SDN List ,
Ukraine ,
US State Departments
In response to an agreement reached on Tuesday between President Nicolás Maduro’s representatives and the Venezuelan political opposition about a road map for the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, on October 18, the...more
On February 5, 2023, the G7 announced that the “price cap” on western-backed seaborne trades of Russian-origin petroleum products to third countries would be set at $45 per barrel ($45/bbl) for Discount to Crude petroleum...more
2/27/2023
/ EU ,
Exports ,
G7 ,
Goods or Services ,
Imports ,
Maritime Transport ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Petroleum ,
Russia ,
Sanction Violations ,
Shipping ,
Suppliers ,
Supply Contracts ,
Ukraine
Oil price cap -
The oil price cap has been co-ordinated by the G7 in order to make EU, UK and US services (including (re)insurance) available to third country importers and exporters as long as the price paid for...more
12/12/2022
/ Asset Freeze ,
Belarus ,
Belarus Sanctions ,
Biden Administration ,
Crude Oil ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
G7 ,
General Licenses ,
Imports ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Switzerland ,
Third Country Entities (TCEs) ,
UK ,
Ukraine
Over the past few weeks, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury ramped up sanctions pressure against Russia with the announcement of a new ban on certain services in seaborne Russian...more
9/23/2022
/ Asset Freeze ,
Belarus ,
Belarus Sanctions ,
Blocked Entities ,
Blocked Person ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Controls ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
As a follow up to our alert of September 7th regarding the G7 proposal to implement a price cap with respect to seaborne Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)...more
9/13/2022
/ Crude Oil ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Embargo ,
EU ,
Maritime Transport ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Oil Prices ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Russia ,
Safe Harbors ,
Shipping
On September 2, 2022, the G7 Finance Ministers issued a statement confirming their intention to implement a price cap with respect to Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products in response to Russia’s continued invasion...more
9/8/2022
/ Crude Oil ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
G7 ,
Importers ,
Imports ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Pricing ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
Over the past few weeks, the US Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took various actions in response to Russia’s continued invasion in Ukraine:
..updated the Specially Designated Nationals and...more
8/17/2022
/ Asset Freeze ,
Belarus ,
Belarus Sanctions ,
Blocked Entities ,
Blocked Person ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Entity List ,
Export Controls ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Ukraine
The US continues to ramp up sanctions pressure on Russia, now emphasizing Russian efforts to evade US export controls and obligations of financial institutions to police Russian efforts at sanctions and export controls...more
7/6/2022
/ Asset Freeze ,
Belarus ,
Belarus Sanctions ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Entity List ,
EU ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Relations ,
General Licenses ,
Military Conflict ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Switzerland ,
Trade Restrictions ,
UK ,
Ukraine
In the latest action to expand sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, on March 8, 2022, President Biden announced in a televised speech a ban on imports of Russian oil, natural gas, and coal into the...more
3/11/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Relations ,
General Licenses ,
Imports ,
Magnitsky Act ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
Tariffs ,
WTO
In the latest of a series of measures targeting China before this week’s transition of administrations, on January 14, 2021, the Trump Administration added China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd. (CNOOC) to the US...more
Hours before its expiration, OFAC extended and re-issued General License 8 as General License 8F on April 21, 2020. The new General License implements significant changes in US sanctions policy with respect to the oil and gas...more
On January 31, 2020, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury removed sanctions on COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian). The delisting may have resulted from US-Chinese...more
2/12/2020
/ China ,
Crude Oil ,
Delisting ,
General Licenses ,
Imports ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Liquid Natural Gas ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
SDN List ,
Shipping ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Agreements ,
Trade Negotiations ,
U.S. Treasury
On Monday, the United States announced that it would not extend the temporary waivers that were granted to eight countries last November allowing them to purchase Iranian oil without threat of sanctions. The temporary waivers...more
4/29/2019
/ Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) ,
Iran ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) ,
NDAA ,
Oil & Gas ,
Secondary Sanctions ,
Waivers
As of November 5, 2018, US secondary sanctions against Iran are back in force, and more than 700 Iranian individuals and entities have been re-added or newly added to the US Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons...more