(Bloomberg) -- The UK announced fresh sanctions targeting alleged “lynchpins” that enable the trade of Russian oil, along with 20 “shadow fleet” vessels.
The financial curbs on oil trading firms, 2Rivers DMCC and 2Rivers Pte Ltd. will clamp down on Russia’s oil revenues and drain President Vladimir Putin’s “war chest,” the UK government said in a statement on Tuesday. The two firms were “key lynchpins in enabling the trading of Putin’s precious oil,” it said.
2Rivers Group emerged earlier this year after a management buyout of Coral Energy Group. It subsequently opened an office in the commodities trading hub of Geneva, Switzerland. Coral Energy was among a clutch of traders that stepped in to handle millions of barrels of Russian oil following the war in Ukraine and sanctions led to a pullback from traditional buyers.
Since then it has repeatedly said that it stopped trading Russian oil and that it had wound down that business. Earlier this month it told Swiss newspaper Le Temps that it planned to open a Geneva office.
2Rivers “strongly believes that the UK sanctions designation is unfounded and does not align with the facts,” a spokesperson said. “The company will challenge this decision through all appropriate legal and diplomatic channels.”
The UK also added 20 oil tankers to the list of sanctioned vessels, its largest set of sanctions on ships hauling fossil fuels for Moscow to date. The restrictions are part of a new international crackdown on “illicit oil shipping,” according to the government. The moves come a day after the European Union sanctioned more than 50 ships that haul Russian commodities.
“The UK has now sanctioned over 100 ships for transporting Russian energy, including 93 oil tankers, more than any other nation,” the government said.
--With assistance from Alex Longley.
(Updates with 2Rivers comment in the fifth paragraph)
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