As part of a round of another 400 US sanctions announced last week, bans have been imposed on seven LNGCs, allegedly linked to Russian interests.
Two of the LNGCs were believed to have loaded at NOVATEK’s Arctic LNG 2 plant, while a third was in the vicinity.
They included ‘Pioneer’ and ‘Asya Energy’, which allegedly lifted the first two shipments from the Arctic LNG 2 project, according to a list published last Friday by the US Department of the Treasury.
‘Pioneer’ and ‘Asya Energy’ were recently acquired by Indian-based Ocean Speedstar Solutions, the US Treasury said. Ocean Speedstar was also added to the sanctions list, while Arctic LNG 2 was the subject of an earlier sanction.
‘Everest Energy’, another vessel in the so called ‘dark fleet’ operated by Russian interests, and said to be the third vessel to recently sail towards the plant, was also sanctioned.
‘North Sky’, ‘North Mountain’, ‘North Air’ and ‘North Way’ — some of which loaded cargoes at Yamal LNG - have also been sanctioned. However, Yamal is not currently under any sanction.
"Russian companies have engaged in efforts to procure secondhand LNGCs, predominantly through front companies in third country jurisdictions, to make up for a critical shortage of available tankers for the Arctic LNG 2 project," the US State Department said in a statement.
The sanctions were thought to be aimed at stopping the development of Russian LNG projects, including Obsky LNG, Arctic LNG 1, Arctic LNG 2 and Arctic LNG 3, plus a new project under development in the Murmansk region.
Russia has spent months assembling what was said to be a ‘shadow fleet’ of LNGCs, following the development of a fleet of crude oil and products tankers.
These vessels have vague ownership, unknown insurers and often attempt to hide their locations by switching off or manipulating their AIS, it was claimed.
NOVATEK, the majority shareholder and operator of both Arctic LNG 2 and Yamal, also had its China-based subsidiary included on the latest US sanctions list.
It has also been revealed that an LNG ship-to-ship (STS) transfer has taken place off Egypt, involving the ‘Pioneer’ - one of the sanctioned vessels.
She went alongside the ‘New Energy’, according to the LSEG and other ship tracking sites.
‘Pioneer’ sailed from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean and was circling for several days north of Port Said before de-activating its AIS transponder on 22nd August, the ship tracking services said.
‘New Energy’ arrived via the Suez Canal, one of only a handful of LNGCs to use this route in recent months, and also switched off its transponder.
Satellite images confirmed that both vessels were alongside each other around 20 nautical miles northeast of Port Said.
