Europe and the UK are large providers of marine insurance, as well as brokerage, finance, vessel classification and other services that make possible the movement of oil around the world. They are also home to many of the vessels that ply the trade. Greek companies are the world’s top tanker owners.
After Dec. 5, those vessels will no longer be able to carry Russian crude and the services won’t be available to any ship that does, European or not, unless the price paid for the cargo is below a still-to-be-decided cap. The bans will be extended to refined products two months later.