The Arctic Metagaz was part of a Russian shadow fleet used to circumvent sanctions imposed on the country's oil and gas after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was struck in a suspected drone attack close to Maltese waters earlier this month, causing a huge hole.
The Soviet-era pipeline, which carries Russian oil via Ukraine to the two landlocked central European countries, was damaged by a Russian missile in late January. Both Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kyiv of stalling to repair it for political reasons. Ukraine has rejected the accusation.
This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction.
A Treasury Department general license will allow the sale of about 128 million barrels of Russian oil already loaded onto tankers previously sanctioned by Washington. The authorization lasts 30 days. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move would let countries buy Russian oil "currently stranded at sea" to expand global supply.