The EU has announced a new import ban on refined product imports made from Russian oil, vowing to end to trade flows arriving “through the back door” starting January 21. To comply with sanctions, the EU has banned mass-balancing ruling out running crude blends that would be difficult to police but it permitted refiners to keep supplying EU countries if they can physically segregate the processing of Russian and non-Russian oil.
Bracewell’s Mark Hunting told S&P Global that traders seeking to flout the rules quickly find weak spots in enforcement.
“I think mostly you won’t need these certificates unless the competent authority demands them. And it seems to me that if you find a competent authority that doesn’t like you, you could probably go out and find one that does,” Hunting said.
