Russia finds way to circumvent sanctions on its gas tankers

A gas tanker subject to anti-Russian sanctions has been spotted in the Suez Canal carrying out a ship-to-ship transfer to a United Arab Emirates ship that has not been sanctioned.

Source: Reuters

Details: A US-sanctioned gas tanker that picked up a cargo from Russia’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) Arctic LNG 2 plant this month has been spotted carrying out a ship-to-ship transfer.

Monitoring service TankerTrackers.com said that the tanker, Pioneer, had conducted a transfer to the Palau-flagged, UAE-owned and Indian-managed New Energy tanker north of the Suez Canal.

The Arctic LNG 2 plant, which was planned to be Russia’s largest, started producing LNG in December, "but its exports have been hindered by Western sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine," Reuters reported.

"Ship-to-ship transfers usually unload LNG from costly ice-class tankers onto cheaper conventional gas carriers, but can also be used to complicate cargo tracking," according to Reuters.

Some countries, including India, continue to buy Russian energy despite Western sanctions, but sometimes avoid disclosing this fact to avoid diplomatic tensions.

The United States said that Pioneer and another tanker, Asya Energy, entered Russian waters in late July and engaged in a number of "deceptive shipping practices", such as shutting off the ships’ automatic identification system (AIS).

According to Reuters, Arctic LNG 2 had been expected to reach an output of 19.8 million metric tonnes of LNG per year and 1.6 million tonnes of stable gas condensate from three trains per year.

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