OFAC authorises certain Russia energy transactions

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) has issued a licence that authorises, through to 12.01 am eastern standard time, 5 December 2022 certain transactions “related to energy” that involve:

(1) State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs, Vnesheconombank;

(2) Public Joint Stock Company Bank Financial Corporation, Otkritie;

(3) Sovcombank Open Joint Stock Company;

(4) Public Joint Stock Company, Sberbank of Russia;

(5) VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company;

(6) Joint Stock Company Alfa-Bank;

(7) Any entity in which one or more of the above persons own, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, a 50 percent or greater interest; or

(8) the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

For the purpose of the licence, ‘the term “related to energy” means the extraction, production, refinement, liquefaction, gasification, regasification, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, transport, or purchase of petroleum, including crude oil, lease condensates, unfinished oils, natural gas liquids, petroleum products, natural gas, or other products capable of producing energy, such as coal, wood, or agricultural products used to manufacture biofuels, or uranium in any form, as well as the development, production, generation, transmission, or exchange of power, through any means, including nuclear, thermal, and renewable energy sources.’

Some exclusions apply.

See: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/russia_gl8c.pdf