The US Treasury Department has extended on Tuesday the sanctions waiver allowing third-party purchases of Russian oil, natural gas, and other energy commodities until 5 December via transactions with Russian banks.
According to the document published on the department’s website, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control is extending the general license authorizing the energy-related transactions with entities including Russia’s Central Bank, Sberbank, Sovcombank, Otkritie, Vnesheconombank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, and others.
The statement explains that the term ‘related to energy’ for the purposes of this general license means the extraction, production, refinement, liquefaction, gasification, regasification, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, transport, or purchase of petroleum.
That includes crude oil, natural gas, unfinished oils, natural gas liquids, lease condensates, petroleum products, or other products capable of producing energy such as wood, coal, agricultural products for biofuels manufacturing, any form of uranium etc.
This category also includes the development, production, generation, transmission, or exchange of nuclear, thermal, and renewable energy sources-generated power.
The previous permit was due to expire on June 24 and the extension date of Dec. 5 matches the planned date of the EU phase-out of Russian crude purchases and seaborne imports it agreed to this month.
Since the Invasion of Ukraine, the US has sanctioned Russia’s largest banks and froze any of their assets touching the US financial system. Meanwhile, it has also banned imports of Russian fossil fuels, and all G7 members the US, and EU have implemented a full or partial ban on Russian oil sales into their countries.
It also prohibited Americans from conducting business with them, allowing only European countries’ bank transactions on Russian oil and gas sent to them and a certain time to transition to different sources of fossil fuels and into alternative energy.
Russia, one of the world’s top energy exporters, has so far covered about 40% of Europe’s natural gas and 27% of its imported oil.
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