THE UK government has targeted 175 companies that form the “2Rivers” oil network — one of the largest shadow fleet* operators globally and a major trader of Russian crude oil.

The sanctions, announced on Tuesday to coincide with the four-year anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, form the largest raft of UK measures since the early months of the invasion. 

“The message is clear — Russian oil is off the market” read a UK government statement.

In total, nearly 300 new sanctions were announced as part of the package which targets critical Russian energy revenues by hitting companies including Transneft PJSC, a major pipeline operator responsible for transporting over 80% of Russian oil exports. The list also includes new designations for 48 oil tankers.

The company 2Rivers, previously operated by Azeri traders Etibar Eyyub and Tahir Garayev, has been linked to an extensive network of companies behind shadow fleet operators.

The network of companies, originally formed as UAE-based Coral Energy in 2010, significantly widen existing UK and EU sanctions targeting Coral and both Garayev and Eyyub, a close associate of Igor Sechin, chief executive of the heavily sanctioned Russian energy giant Rosneft.

Eyyub was identified last year by the UK as owning or controlling Coral Energy Group, Nord Axis, 2Rivers Group and BX Energy, also know as Bellatrix, all of which have been carrying on business in the Russian energy sector.

2Rivers Group had been managed by shareholders Talat Safarov, Ahmed Kerimov and Anar Madatli since 2024.

It was Eyyub, however, who founded and ran the network of companies that all link back to Coral Energy, which was among a clutch of traders that stepped in to handle millions of barrels of Russian oil following the invasion in Ukraine.

According to the EU’s designation from last year, 2Rivers Group continued to enable shipments and exports of Russian oil, notably from Rosneft, by concealing the actual origin of the oil.

Several of the 175 companies linked to 2Rivers in Tuesday’s UK sanctions list had been named in a Financial Times investigation published last week. That investigation identified a network of oil traders and shadow fleet shipping companies being used to export nearly 80% of Russian crude produced by Rosneft.

Foxton FZCO, a Dubai-based entity listed as the buyer of $5.6bn of oil in Russian export filings, and Advan Alliance, an entity listed in Indian filings as having sold $1.5bn of Russian oil into the country, were both included in the UK sanctions listing on Tuesday.

In addition to hitting the entire 2Rivers network, the UK has also targeted Russia’s liquefied natural gas industry. The designations, which included two ships and several traders, added Gazprom and Novatek’s medium-tonnage LNG projects in the Baltic Sea.

Sanctions have been imposed on Gazprom LNG Portovaya and Cryogaz-Vysotsk, adding to the existing US sanctions on both companies from last year.

The UK also included LNG tankers CCH Gas (IMO: 9307205) and Kunpeng (IMO: 9247194), which it says are involved in transporting Russian gas to third countries.

Both ships were sold into opaque ownership structures in March and May 2025 and formed part of a small Russian LNG shadow fleet.

In December last year, Lloyd’s List reported that both ships had been spoofing location data while performing ship-to-ship transfers.

The UK also targeted Maritime Mutual Insurance Association (NZ) Limited, a P&I insurer based in New Zealand, but with executives or directors working from Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Singapore and London.

Maritime Mutual has emerged as a pivotal player in the global trade of sanctioned oil, that was estimated by a Reuters investigation published in October last year, to have insured nearly one in six shadow fleet tankers sanctioned by Western governments.

Announcing the sanctions package on Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The UK has today taken decisive action to disrupt the critical financing, military equipment and revenue streams that sustain Russia’s aggression, in our largest raft of measures since the early months of the invasion”.