Sanctions stop supply of new vessels for Russian LNG plant

Bloomberg informs.

The President of Japanese shipping company, Takeshi Hashimoto said in an interview that they can’t charter 3 icebreakers LNG ships for the Arctic LNG 2 project anymore due to US restrictions, and selling those can prove challenging. 

Launch of the critical Russian plant was complicated by US sanctions imposed in connection with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Novatek PJSC operator planned to use the vessels to ship the fuel from the platform. It will be difficult to operate within the planned capacity without them. Novatek has already delayed the first voyage and is looking for buyers. 

“Our contractual obligation is that if we cannot provide the service to Arctic 2, we have to sell our vessel to Arctic 2,” Hashimoto said in an interview in Goa, India, on Tuesday.

However, according to him, there is a sanction in place that prevents the company from signing this deal with Arctic, which complicates the matter.   

Hashimoto stated that MOL cooperates with governments of the US and Japan to solve this issue. The first out of three ice-breaking LNG carriers will be constructed by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Arctic LNG 2 international partners, including Japanese Mitsui & Co. and French TotalEnergies SE, declared force majeure regarding their participation in the project.

• On the 5th of February, it was reported that the European commission will not include additional restrictions on the importation of Russian goods in the 13th sanctions package, in order to adopt it before the second anniversary of Russian invasion of Ukraine. Borrell stated that companies assisting Russia in bypassing the sanctions will be included on the sanctions list.