Dozens of tankers remain stuck doing nothing months after being sanctioned by the Treasury Department — a signal of Washington's scope to disrupt Moscow’s petroleum supply chain if it chooses to.
Since October, 40 ships involved in Russia’s oil trade have been added to the Treasury’s list of designated entities, mostly for breaching a price cap that’s meant to restrict the Kremlin’s access to petrodollars.
Only one of them, the SCF Primorye, collected a cargo since being designated. It is heading to Asia, and if it’s able to offload the barrels it’s carrying without any problems, it might encourage Russia to use more of the ships again.