As part of around another 400 sanctions announced last week, the US has imposed bans on seven LNGCs, allegedly linked to Russian gas exporters.
Three of the LNGCs were believed to have loaded or will load, at NOVATEK’s Arctic LNG 2 plant.
They included ‘Pioneer’ and ‘Asya Energy’, which 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 claimed. 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 a 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.
The US imposed sanctions on Arctic LNG 2 last year, preventing the start of exports and effectively banning foreign companies from being involved in its development, in addition to stopping the delivery of a series of Ice Class LNGCs, primarily ordered to export LNG from the plant.
NOVATEK, the majority shareholder and operator of both Arctic LNG 2 and Yamal, also had its China-based subsidiary included on the sanctions list.
Ship-to-ship transfer
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 analysts.
‘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.
