Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2680 actions· ✨ 93 recent

On 15 October 2025 the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated 39 entities and specified 51 vessels — including, for the first time, Russia's two largest integrated oil majors PJSC Rosneft Oil Company and PJSC Oil Company Lukoil — for supporting Russia's energy, defence and financial sectors. 51 vessels (44 identified as "shadow fleet" tankers) were specified for transporting Russian crude oil and LNG in evasion of the G7 price cap. The package also introduced a ban on importing oil products refined in a third country from Russian-origin crude, closing a refined-product loophole in the price-cap regime.

On 19 September 2025 the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office designated two Georgian nationals — Otar Partskhaladze and Levan Vasadze — and two companies, UK-based Aeza International Ltd and Russia-based HeliCo Group LLC, under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, citing their roles in supporting Russian disinformation and Georgia's Kremlin-aligned political network. In the same package OFSI proscribed two oil tankers, Bavly and Karakuz, for allegedly delivering Russian-origin crude to the port of Batumi, Georgia, barring both vessels from UK ports and the UK Ship Register. Designated individuals face asset freezes, travel bans and director-disqualification sanctions.

The UK's National Wealth Fund made a GBP 28.6 million equity investment in Peak Cluster, a CO2-transport pipeline connecting cement and lime producers in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and North West England to the Morecambe Net Zero offshore CO2 store in the Irish Sea. The investment is designed to unlock a further GBP 31 million from private partners Holcim, Tarmac, Breedon, SigmaRoc, Summit Energy Evolution and Progressive Energy, bringing total project equity to GBP 59.6 million. The pipeline is intended to decarbonise around 40% of the UK's cement and lime industry, preventing an estimated 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year and supporting roughly 3,500 jobs (2,000+ existing, ~300 new manufacturing, ~1,200 temporary construction), rising to 13,000 combined with the linked Morecambe Net Zero CO2-storage project.

HM Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), with the UK Foreign Office, announced on 13 January 2025 a sanctions package targeting Russia's oil "shadow fleet" — vessels operated outside Western maritime insurance and flag-state registries to evade the G7+ Russian crude price cap (set at $60/bbl since December 2022). The package designated 18 vessels (oil tankers transporting Russian crude in violation of the cap) and traders, with separate designations of two LNG carriers and two oil-services firms. This is the largest single UK shadow-fleet designation to date and was synchronised with EU Council and US OFAC packages in mid-January 2025.