Boost in demand from China, and India could act as a trigger Biden administration urged to set up escrow accounts Tight global oil supplies complicate enforcement efforts Risks are rising that the US will impose secondary sanctions on Russian oil customers as G7 partners, including the EU, expand their commitments to curb flows, analysts said May 5.

US secondary sanctions, like those reimposed on Iran in 2018, pressure third-party importing countries to reduce their purchases from the target country over time by a certain amount or risk being cut off from the US financial system. “The primary goal will be to prevent Russia from simply rerouting oil elsewhere,” said Brian O’Toole, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former senior sanctions official at the US Treasury Department. O’Toole expects the US to “take action […]