Nicosia jittery about US demand to ban vessels

The Republic of Cyprus reportedly has concerns over a US request to ban vessels transporting Russian oil, with the small island but major maritime player feeling pressure as Washington leads a G7 effort to sharply reduce Russian oil revenue.

G7 leaders attending a summit this week in Germany were searching for ways to manipulate oil prices, aimed at hurting Russia but not western allies.

Cypriot Finance Minster Constantinos Petrides received a phone call on Monday from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who is rounding up allies to ensure Moscow would not be able to profit from higher global energy costs.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, Yellen and Petrides “discussed and agreed that the goal is to place a price limit on Russian oil to deprive the Kremlin of revenue to finance their war in Ukraine while mitigating spillover effects for the global economy.”

Following Monday’s phone call, Yellen wrote on Twitter that the United States “will work expeditiously with our counterparts in G7 countries, and other global allies and partners, to advance this effort to limit the price of Russian oil.”

But Nicosia, a major player in the maritime world, reportedly had concerns over recent moves to ban Russian oil, according to a Bloomberg story that reported on the phone call.

“The US is also pushing Cyprus to impose a ban on Cypriot-flagged vessels transporting Russian oil to third countries, according to a person familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg wrote.

The authors went on say that the Cypriot minister raised concerns over a vessel ban.

According to Bloomberg, Petrides pointed out that other countries were not imposing sanctions on Russia, with the statement being attributed to a person familiar with the matter who was not named in the story.

Details of the G7’s oil strategy vis a vis Russia were not yet finalized, but American officials said they were confident the plan could do two things, drive down Russia’s revenues from oil as well as stabilize global prices.

“Limiting the cost of Russian oil will put downward pressure on global energy prices in a way that dampens the impact of Putin’s war on the US economy,” a Treasury statement concluded.