The government is investigating 37 UK-linked companies for potentially breaching Russian oil sanctions – but no fines have been issued so far, the BBC can reveal.
Financial sanctions against Russia were introduced by the United Kingdom and other Western countries following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Conservative shadow foreign minister Dame Harriett Baldwin said the sanctions were aimed at “cutting off the sources of funding for the Russian war machine” and “bringing an early end to this illegal invasion”.
But critics said they were ineffective after the latest figures showed Russia's economy was growing.
Treasury said it would take action where appropriate, but pointed to the complexity of the cases as the reason they take a long time.
The sanctions include a price cap on Russian oil, intended to ensure that oil can continue to flow without Russia making large profits.
The cap prohibits British companies from facilitating the transport of Russian oil sold at more than $60 a barrel.
Data obtained by the BBC using freedom of information laws shows the Treasury has opened investigations into 52 companies with a link to the UK suspected of breaching price caps since December 2022.
As of August, 37 of these investigations were ongoing and 15 had been completed, but no fines had been issued.
The identity of the companies is unknown, but it appears that some are likely marine insurance companies.
Dame Harriett told the BBC “there is probably more to be done” by the government and the oil sector itself “as it appears that British importers are still importing oil from Russia”.
Anti-corruption organization Global Witness said it was “quite astonishing” that no fines had yet been issued, and described the oil cap as “a sort of paper tiger” that fails to punish infractions of the rules.
Louis Wilson, head of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness, called for “bold action” against companies that violate sanctions.
He said that if the British government “stops British businesses from allowing Putin to profit, then I think others will start to follow suit.”
Investigations into potential violations of the oil cap and other financial sanctions are conducted by a unit of the Treasury called the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI).
OFSI received an additional £50 million in funding in March to improve enforcement of the UK's sanctions regime.
But Mr Wilson said companies under investigation find it “pretty easy to get” a document that gets them out of trouble.
He described the documents as “basically promises, voluntary pieces of paper” and said they could be easily obtained even if the company was involved in transporting oil sold above the price ceiling.
“It is likely that either these companies will find the documents they need to get through this process, or we will see the UK government silently abandon these files,” he said.
He said the United States was reluctant to make Western sanctions regimes tougher “because they are afraid that if they enforce the rules, it will shut down trade in Russian oil and it will drive up oil prices.” oil”.
Dame Harriett said it was important that when OFSI “discovers deliberate wrongdoing, it demands financial sanctions”.
A Treasury spokesperson said it would take enforcement action “where appropriate” and was “warning sanctions violators”.
They said the cap reduces Russian tax revenues from oil, adding that data from the country's Finance Ministry showed a 30% drop last year compared to 2022.
The former chairman of Parliament's Treasury Select Committee launched an investigation into the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia in February.
Dame Harriett said she had “received evidence that the oil price cap is being circumvented by refining Russian oil in refineries based in third countries and then exporting the oil to the UK”.
Earlier this year, the BBC reported on claims about how much oil this so-called 'loophole' was allowing into the UK.
But parliamentary committees are disbanded once elections are called, and the findings of the Treasury committee's investigation have never been published.
It appears that no decision has yet been made on whether the new Treasury Select Committee will take up the work.
OFSI imposed its first Russia-related sanction last month, fining a concierge company £15,000 for including a sanctioned individual on its client list.
London-based Integral Concierge Services made or received 26 payments involving an individual whose assets were frozen under Russian sanctions.
