The G-7 countries and the European Union are discussing a fundamental change in the regime for limiting Russian energy revenues - a complete ban on the provision of maritime services to tankers carrying Russian oil. This was reported by "Reuters", citing its sources familiar with the negotiations.
According to the agency, the idea is to replace the current price cap on Russian crude, which is increasingly difficult to implement and has largely lost its effectiveness in practice.
Russia exports over a third of its oil by sea, mainly to India and China, with a significant part of the shipments relying on Western services — insurance, reinsurance, brokerage, classification certificates and shipping management.
A complete ban would end any participation by companies from the EU, G7 and other allies in these operations. It would also affect European countries with large maritime fleets such as Greece, Cyprus and Malta, whose companies are still involved in transporting Russian oil.
According to the sources, the measure could be included in the next EU sanctions package, planned for early 2026. However, Brussels prefers to reach a general agreement with the G7 before formally proposing the ban to avoid regime divergence and possible loopholes.
The price cap was introduced in 2022 to limit Russian revenues by allowing exports provided the sales price remains below a certain level. However, Moscow has gradually built up a "shadow fleet" and alternative insurance channels, which significantly weakened the effect of the measure.
According to "Reuters", Western countries believe that the ban on maritime services would become a stronger and more direct blow to the Kremlin's revenues, since many of these services still have no effective substitute outside Western markets.