The EU has imposed additional measures against Russia’s oil and gas industry as part of its 16th sanctions package, while stopping short of any further restrictions on the bloc’s purchase of Russian LNG.

The EU approved the measures on February 24, on the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The new sanctions targeted multiple sectors, from energy, trade and transport, to infrastructure and financial services.

Among the measures, the EU targeted an additional 74 oil tankers and other vessels that form part of Russia’s shadow fleet used to circumvent sanctions. That brings the total number of vessels under restriction to 153. It also included a new listing criterion for targeting vessels to cover those that support the operation of unsafe oil tankers.

The EU is also completely banning the temporary storage or placement under free zone procedures of Russian crude oil and petroleum products at EU ports, which was allowed until now as long as the products were sold under EU price caps and delivered to a third country. 

It has also slapped sanctions on Russia’s Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk, and its Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, because of their use in transporting Russian oil using the shadow fleet and other irregular and high-risk shipping practices. But exemptions will be made to ensure legal trade flows and individual travel are not affected.

A transaction ban will also be extended to allow the EU to list financial institutions and cryptocurrency providers that take part in circumventing the price cap and the shadow fleet.

In addition, the EU agreed to prohibit the provision of goods, technology and services to crude oil projects in Russia such as Vostok Oil, a mega-development led by state oil company Rosneft in the Russian Arctic. This already applies to Russian LNG projects. It is also extending an existing software ban to cover the export, supply and provision of oil and gas exploration software, using software used in drilling processes, geological inspections and reservoir calculation. 

EU imports of Russian LNG have soared over the past three years, rising 19.4% in 2024 alone to 17.4mn tonnes, even as the bloc has severed most other energy trade with Russia. Nevertheless, some member states had called for these imports to be curtailed as part of the 16th sanctions package, despite the bloc enduring record high gas prices as a result of the end of transit through Ukraine on January 1, cold weather and low wind speeds. 

“This new round of sanctions not only targets the Russian shadow fleet but those who support the operation of unsafe oil tankers, videogame controllers used to pilot drones, banks used to circumvent our sanctions and propaganda outlets used to spout lies,” the European Commission’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement. “Every sanction package deprives the Kremlin of funds to wage war. With talks underway to end Russia’s aggression, we must put Ukraine in the strongest possible position. Sanctions provide leverage.”