Archive

Greek-owned oil tankers are likely to continue to carry Russian oil exports, despite the passage of a new eighteenth sanctions package last week that largely targets Russia’s oil exports. The main sanction in the new package introduces a floating rate oil price sanctions cap of 15% below market rates for the Urals blend, Russia’s main export product oil. Previously, the cap was a fixed $60, but after prices fell […]

As the war in Ukraine grinds on, the Black Sea is emerging as the key theatre in Europe’s long-term security contest with Russia, according to political analyst Dimitar Bechev of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The balance of power in the Black Sea has shifted to Moscow’s disadvantage. Russia no longer enjoys the dominance it had after it seized Crimea in 2014,” Bechev wrote […]

In the 2024/25 marketing season, which ended on June 30, 2025, Ukraine exported 46.7 million tons of grains and oilseeds, which is significantly lower than the previous season (57.5 million tons of grains and oilseeds). As previously noted, this decrease is explained by smaller carryover stocks from the previous season, as well as a slightly lower harvest. According to UGA estimates, the production of grains […]

Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports have killed over 30 workers and caused billions of dollars in damage, yet most terminals remain operational. Edgar Martin of Infospectrum, part of Lloyd’s List Intelligence, provides a brief summary and background of the Ukrainian shipping sector in wartime. THE full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has radically altered Ukrainian shipping. War has rerouted its trade flows, but […]

OFSI’s new series, ‘Financial Sanctions: The Basics’, highlights 6 key areas in OFSI and financial sanctions more generally. The first video in OFSI’s ‘Financial Sanctions: The Basics’ series provides detail on the work carried out at OFSI and how financial sanctions work more generally. The second video in OFSI’s ‘Financial Sanctions: The Basics’ series provides an insight into the range of guidance that OFSI produces […]

The failure to address the environmental issues could turn into a vicious circle in which the falling Caspian Sea level starts to jeopardize the operations of the fossil fuel and shipping industries. Concern has been growing in recent years over the steadily declining level of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water. The water level dropped by about two meters from 2006 to 2024, […]

The EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is being expanded to cover shipping. But what does this involve and what does it mean for the maritime sector? What is the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)?The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is one of the main tools with which the EU hopes to combat global heating and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cost […]

Highlights Abstract Ukraine is a key global producer and exporter of grain. In peacetime, over 70% of Ukraine’s grain production is exported, and over 90% of these exports go through Black Sea ports. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and consequently the occupation, blockade, or destruction of these ports, has disrupted the maritime supply chains. In this paper we examine the difficulties experienced in attempts to […]

DMC/SandT/25/07 England THE OWNERS OF THE “X-PRESS MAHANADA” v THE OWNERS OF THE “BURGAN” English Admiralty Court: Cockerill J: [2025] EWHC 721 (Admlty): 26 March 2025 Judgment Available on BAILII @ https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admlty/2025/721.html Lionel Persey KC (instructed by Holman Fenwick Willan LLP) for the X-PRESS MAHANADA (the “XPM”) Nigel Jacobs KC (instructed by Stann Law Limited) for the BURGAN (the “BURGAN”) ADMIRALTY: COLLISION: APPLICATION OF RULE […]

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest exporter of uranium. Kazakhstan is party to 53 bilateral investment treaties, including with the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany and Japan and the multilateral Energy Charter Treaty. These give investors from counterpart countries the right to have their investments treated to a certain standard by Kazakhstan and to refer claims against Kazakhstan for breaches of those rights to binding arbitration. […]