Oil dereks at an oil filed near the city of Surgut in Russia’s Khantiy-Mansiysk autonomous district in western Siberia. Photo: EPA / Vadim Rusakov
The European Union announced a further lowering of the price cap on Russian oil from $47.6 to $44.1 per barrel on Thursday, in a move aimed at reducing the Kremlin’s revenue from its energy exports, which remains lucrative despite international sanctions.
The measure, which is due to come into force on 1 February, applies only to seaborne shipments. In practice, however, the cap has been widely circumvented, and when the ceiling was lowered to $47.6 last year, only an estimated 35% of vessels transporting Russian oil complied with the rules, the remainder being deemed Russia’s “shadow fleet”.
Figures published by The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) have shown that Russia continues to generate substantial income from its fossil fuel exports despite international sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Despite Russia’s monthly fossil fuel export revenues declining to their second-lowest level since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022 last month, they still brought it approximately €500 million per day, according to CREA.
In December 2025, Russian crude oil exports worth approximately €800 million were delivered by some 26 shadow fleet vessels, with almost half of that oil transported by falsely-flagged ships transiting the Danish straits on just 13 tankers, causing both Sweden and Finland to push for a complete ban on the transportation of oil and gas from Russia to EU ports.
On Monday, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard called for a total prohibition on European companies providing transport, insurance, port access and other services to Russian ships carrying energy exports.
Sweden and Finland have also called for stricter limits on Russian fertiliser imports and a total ban on the export of luxury goods to Russia, arguing that such products carry political and symbolic weight irrespective of their actual value.
The EU is currently preparing a 20th package of sanctions to be imposed on Moscow, which is expected to be finalised by the end of February, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
