Far-reaching EU sanctions have already placed a ban on 90% of European oil imports from Russia. Some few European countries are heavily dependent, while most are not. For this reason during the Biden administration the US issued a temporary Treasury exemption allowing sanctioned Russian banks to process European payments for oil sales. But as of Wednesday that exemption expired, and at this time no one in Europe can purchase Russian oil.
The fact that the Trump administration has not renewed the exemption portends more economic pain to come for Russa, added to ongoing punitive efforts of the West toward starving funding for its war machine.
It is as yet unclear whether the White House still intends to extend the waiver, but without doubt it’s being held out as leverage to induce Moscow to agree to the proposed 30-day Ukraine war ceasefire which came out of US officials’ meeting with Zelensky government representatives in Jeddah.
At this moment the administration remains mum, but here’s what Fox Senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich wrote Wednesday, hours after the waiver expiration:
Unclear if President Trump reissued waiver on Russian General License 8L – allows other countries to buy Russian oil using US dollar, US payment system. Biden’s waiver expired at midnight.
If POTUS did NOT reissue it, oil prices could rise by $5/barrel by some estimates… but if he DID, POTUS could face some of the same criticism Biden faced, saying it played to Putin’s hand. The White House Press Secretary told us she did not believe it has been reissued but would check on it.
Treasury, State, and WH did not have answers for us yesterday ahead of the deadline.
Meanwhile Reuters has highlighted Gazprom’s rapid decline after its almost total loss of European markets amid the Ukraine war:
- Gazprom’s Europe-facing export arm considers selling lavish offices, sources say
- Down to just a handful of employees, job cuts also approved at headquarters, sources say
- European buyers cast doubt on return to Russian gas in case of Ukraine peace
- Russia’s gas exports to China unlikely to replace European market losses
BREAKING: Trump had cut off all Russian oil sales to EU!
Treasury has ended the Biden exemption that allowed sanctioned Russian banks to process European payments for oil sales. Now no one in Europe can purchase Russian oil pic.twitter.com/zOCqzlc0Di
— Marc Thiessen 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇦🇹🇼🇮🇱 (@marcthiessen) March 13, 2025
Still, President Trump has teased the possibility of easing sanctions on Russia a reward for coming to the negotiating table and achieving a deal. But Putin has remained resistant for the time being, seeing any short-term truce as but an opportunity for Ukraine rearm and refresh its forces. Before the war, in 2021, overall the EU imported €71 billion worth of oil from Russia, which broke down to €48 billion of crude oil and €23 billion of refined oil products, according to European data.
Putin on Thursday touted the possibility of Washington easing or dropping sanctions, and the impact it would have on natural gas deliveries as well. “European gas futures dropped as much as 4.5% after President Vladimir Putin said a potential energy cooperation deal between Moscow and Washington could boost Russian gas flows to Europe,” Bloomberg reports.
“In the wake of the invasion, the European Union has taken steps to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. With the halt of gas transit via Ukraine on Jan. 1, Russia is sending just a fraction of its former shipments to Europe via one leg of the TurkStream pipeline,” the report reviews.
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