Rosneft Trading and TNK Trading handled a "large percentage" of Venezuela's oil exports in 2019

TNK Trading International SA is scheduled to load 14.3 million barrels of Venezuelan crude in the first two months of 2020, compared with 5 million in all of 2019, according to shipping reports compiled by Bloomberg. That may offset any lost oil revenue for the Maduro administration, underscoring the difficulty of shutting Venezuela’s access to the global market.

The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based subsidiary of the Russian state oil company, for supporting Venezuela's oil sector by continuing to trade with sanctions-hit PDVSA

The sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department against Rosneft’s subsidiary RTSA and its Chairman are illegal, unjustified, and an act of legal abuse.

US imports of unfinished oils from Russia averaged 472,000 b/d in November, the most since May 2013, when the same amount of unfinished oils was imported from Russia.

Russian energy minister Alexander Novak discussed bilateral energy cooperation with the US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, on Thursday, according to an energy ministry statement.

The US was prepared to sanction Rosneft if it continued to trade crude oil and fuel with PDVSA, but analysts said those sanctions have yet to be imposed because of the expected impact they may have on the global oil market.

The EU has agreed to sanctions against two officials from Turkey’s state petroleum company.

The potential that the waivers would lapse has raised concerns since 2019 that state-owned Russian nuclear company Rosatom, which does work for Iran's civilian nuclear program but also supplies a fifth of US enriched uranium, could be sanctioned, disrupting the supply of nuclear fuel to US utilities.

Following the Jan. 28, 2019 ban on U.S. firms importing Venezuelan crude, the United States has not followed through on threats to extend the sanctions to any foreign company doing business with PDVSA, as it seeks to oust socialist Maduro.

The US State Department on Thursday set sanctions against companies in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that Iran continues to be the world's leading sponsor of terrorism and that Iran has threatened United States military assets and civilians through the use of military force and support to Iranian-backed militia groups.

“Of course we will finish building (the pipeline)... Gazprom has alternative options for how to lay it. It will take a little more time, but that’s no big deal,” Medvedev told journalists, adding that it could take a couple more months.

The EU first imposed energy sanctions in July 2014 when it limited Russia 's access to European technology and services for developing Arctic, deepwater and unconventional oil resources.

Дмитрий Тимофеев указал, что США злоупотребляют статусом доллара как основной резервной и расчетной валюты. Поэтому основные меры в сфере противодействия санкциям, над которыми работает Правительство Российской Федерации, направлены на снижение зависимости российской экономики от доллара за счет перехода на расчеты в национальных валютах. "Ориентируемся на создание системы стимулов, которая будет способствовать переходу юридических лиц, банков на использование альтернативных валют, что позволит снизить уязвимость", - сказал он.