News wire — Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer Novatek , appears to be preparing a floating storage unit (FSU) to receive gas as part of its Arctic LNG 2 project, in defiance of sanctions, LSEG ship-tracking data showed on Friday.
The United States imposed restrictions on the Saam FSU and other entities last September as it increased its efforts to constrain Russia’s future energy revenue in response to what it called Russia’s “unprovoked war” against Ukraine.
The Saam FSU provides storage for gas from the Arctic LNG 2 project to facilitate logistics for further delivery.
The data showed that the Everest Energy gas carrier, also under the U.S. sanctions over Russia’s war with Ukraine, was located near the Saam FSU in the Arctic port of Murmansk.
Another blacklisted tanker, Asya Energy, was also spotted in the area.
The data does not prove the tankers received cargoes from Arctic LNG 2.
The operations, however, imply Russia is moving ahead with the project, which was planned to be Russia’s largest, but has been hampered by sanctions.
Novatek does not comment on sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is girding the $2.1 trillion economy for a long war and Western hopes of provoking a swift Russian economic crisis by imposing some of the toughest sanctions yet have not been realised.
The United States has said Russian gas carriers have engaged in deceptive practices, such as shutting off vessels’ automatic identification system (AIS).
Russia has repeatedly said the sanctions are illegal and undermine global trade.
In addition to the LSEG data, the U.S. Department of State said another vessel the Pioneer loaded an LNG cargo from the Arctic LNG 2 plant from Aug. 1-3.
It also said commercial satellite imagery captured Asya Energy loading LNG from the Utrenneye terminal at the Arctic LNG 2 facility from Aug. 9-11.
Earlier this week, ship-tracking data showed a U.S.-sanctioned gas tanker that picked up a cargo from an Arctic LNG 2 plant this month was carrying out a ship-to-ship transfer.
Reporting by Reuters; editing by Barbara Lewis – Reuters
