Putin Under Pressure?

Oct 24th, 2025:What will additional sanctions do to tanker rates? Last week, our Tanker Opinion discussed the potential implications of a growing oversupply of crude oil as most pundits expect that a combination of non-OPEC production growth and OPEC+ quota increases will overwhelm anemic global demand growth in 2026. Now, we have to potentially worry about the opposite. The Trump administration, citing frustration with “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”, announced on Wednesday sanctions on Russia’s largest oil producers, including Rosneft and Lukoil. Combined, these companies represent between 50 and 60% of total Russian crude oil production. This is the first time that the current U.S. administration has directly targeted Russia. One day later, the EU rolled out its 19th sanctions package directed towards Russian energy exports, including adding 117 ships to the list of sanctioned vessels. It is noteworthy that the EU also took aim at two Chinese independent oil refineries and a Chinese trading firm. These new sanctions, in particular the U.S. blacklisting of Rosneft and Lukoil send shockwaves through the oil and tanker market, which were already in turmoil because of previous OFAC sanctions on Chinese terminals and the tit-for-tat port fees that the U.S. and China rolled out last week.