‘The New Statesman’: Britain still helps shipping Russian crude oil, oil products and LNG

Pic.: Reuters

British companies continue to play a significant part in Russia’s economy of oil and gas, ‘The New Statesman’ informs.

New research shared exclusively with the New Statesman has found that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than £200bn in Russian fossil fuel exports have been shipped using UK-based maritime services. A single UK-based firm has carried almost a quarter of Russia’s exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) since the war began. While our government seeks to increase its defence budget, Britain’s active role in the Russian fossil fuel trade helps to maintain the military spending of a nuclear power currently at war with a close European ally.

The study, which has been conducted by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), finds that the value of Russian crude oil, oil products and LNG shipped under British ownership or insurance since the war began has now reached £205.8bn. Three quarters of Russian LNG carriers were covered by UK insurance.

Britain officially stopped importing Russian oil and oil products nine months after the invasion (it became illegal to do so on 5 December 2022). But a sanctions loophole means Britain keeps buying Putin’s products: Russian crude is shipped to refineries in Turkey and India and then returns as oil products. CREA estimates that the UK has indirectly bought £1.4bn in Russian oil through this loophole, providing more than half a billion pounds’ worth of revenue to the Kremlin. Much of the jet fuel taking British holidaymakers to sunnier climes this summer will have entered the supply chain in the oilfields of Siberia.

Europe continues to buy Russian LNG directly, and in 2024 imported more LNG from Russia than ever before. Much of this is shipped, entirely legally, by a single British company: Seapeak, which is headquartered in Glasgow and which owns seven specialist LNG carriers, which can power through ice two metres thick. This is not subject to a ban and there is no suggestion that Seapeak has broken any laws. Seapeak was mentioned in an Early Day Motion on Russian LNG, which was signed by 34 cross-party MPs in January. CREA says that Seapeak alone has carried Russian LNG worth £13bn since the war began.

If Western countries entirely quit the Russian oil and gas habit, the wholesale price of energy would spike in a similar manner to 2022, bringing the price of almost everything else with it. The last inflationary surge cost the UK government £67bn in a single year in additional spending in support for consumers and businesses, and the population still endured a historic rise in the cost of living accompanied by strikes across the public sector. No government is going to impose that upon its voters, and even if it did, it wouldn’t last long.

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