The Palau International Ship Registry has suspended the registration of three LNG tankers that were recently sanctioned by the United States.
The Asya Energy, Everest Energy And pioneer were among the seven gas tankers against which the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions last Friday.
Talks about Russia’s possible buildup of a shadow fleet of LNG tankers began earlier this year when industry experts warned that Moscow could implement a similar scenario to that seen with oil and product tankers to circumvent sanctions.
OFAC also sanctioned the Panamanian-flagged Northern air, North Mountain, Northern Sky And North route last week.
In an attempt to circumvent sanctions against Russia’s revived Arctic LNG 2 project, “Russian companies have made efforts to procure used LNG tankers, primarily through front companies in third countries, to make up for a critical shortage of available tankers for the Arctic LNG 2 project,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
The Asya Energy and the pioneer were recorded by satellite imagery earlier this month during the loading of the first two cargoes from Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project, which was previously approved by the USA. The two vessels and the Everest Energy were linked to India-based Ocean Speedstar Solutions, which was also placed on the sanctions list, along with Nur Global Shipping’s United Arab Emirates-based Zara Shipholding as the registered owner of the 2005-built pioneerex-Pioneer spirit (in the picture).
The four other blocked Panama-flagged vessels are linked to Dubai-based White Fox Ship Management. The Treasury Department said the quartet were transshipping liquefied natural gas from Russia’s Yamal LNG project, although it was originally intended for the Arctic LNG 2 project.
“The acquisition of these four vessels represents an expansion of Russia’s existing LNG fleet and export capacity, an expansion that we are committed to preventing,” the Finance Ministry said, adding that such transshipment of LNG by vessels with disguised ownership could ultimately help Russia circumvent EU restrictions prohibiting the transshipment of LNG of Russian origin through European ports.
The latest sanctions follow a package of more than 300 sanctions imposed in June aimed at hampering the development of Russia’s LNG and oil projects, including Obsky LNG, Arctic LNG 1, Arctic LNG 2 and Arctic LNG 3, as well as a new project in the Murmansk region. Sanctions have also been imposed on China’s Novatek, which is supposed to market gas to Asian buyers.
