The European Commission's draft 21st sanctions package would, for the first time, target the service layer behind Russia's shadow fleet, the bunkering, ship-to-ship (STS) transfer and port services that keep sanctioned tankers moving, alongside about 30 more vessel listings1. It also freezes the $44.10 price cap, the G7 and EU ceiling on the price at which Russian seaborne crude can be lawfully shipped using Western services, to January 2027, blocking the upward adjustment toward roughly $75 that a falling Brent would otherwise trigger.
The package still needs member-state unanimity and heads to a mid-July vote before the 15 July auto-lift. Its support-vessel target hits a gap earlier rounds left open: listing shadow vessels did little while their bunkering and STS providers stayed in business, so designating the service layer attacks the same logistics chain from the supply side.
For Russian-barrel economics, a frozen cap plus a squeezed service layer keeps downward pressure on Urals, Russia's main export grade, without a single new designation from OFAC, the US sanctions enforcer.
