The United Kingdom on 21 July announced 137 additional sanctions aimed at Russia’s energy trade, black-listing 135 tankers that officials say have carried $24 billion of illicit oil cargoes since early 2024. The measures also target Dubai-based Litasco Middle East DMCC, a trading arm of Lukoil PJSC, and lower the UK-enforced price cap on Russian crude to $47.60 a barrel, 20.6% below the previous limit. Within the same week the European Union widened its own restrictions to cover petroleum products refined outside Russia using Russian crude. India’s Nayara Energy, operator of the 400,000-barrel-a-day Vadinar refinery and partly owned by Rosneft, was singled out in the EU listing. Shipowners and traders have since avoided the plant, two tankers have cancelled loadings, and the company has postponed a naphtha export tender. The EU action has also complicated Rosneft’s effort to divest its Nayara stake. Analysts at Kpler estimate that the newly proscribed India- and Türkiye-centred trade routes had supplied roughly one-fifth of the EU’s diesel demand, forcing buyers to scramble for alternative cargoes. Brussels additionally sanctioned ship-registry operator Intershipping Services LLC, prompting the Comoros government to accuse the firm of fraudulently using its flag. The clamp-down coincided with fresh logistical turbulence inside Russia. Loadings at the Black Sea terminals of Novorossiisk and Yuzhnaya Ozereevka were halted on 23 July after Moscow introduced rules requiring Federal Security Service clearance for foreign tankers. Industry sources told Reuters the paperwork issue could be resolved within days, but the suspension threatens about 1.66 million barrels a day of CPC Blend export plans for August. The parallel moves by London, Brussels and Moscow tighten pressure on the Kremlin’s oil revenue lifeline, while injecting new uncertainty into Mediterranean crude and product markets already unsettled by recent contamination scares and price-cap enforcement.