The United States has sanctioned four LNG shipping firms based in Singapore due to their connections with Russian gas producer Novatek.
The sanctioned companies—LNG Alpha Shipping, LNG Beta Shipping, LNG Delta Shipping, and LNG Gamma Shipping—are majority-owned by New Transhipment FZE, a Novatek subsidiary in the UAE, according to the U.S. State Department.
These firms own LNG carriers North Air, North Mountain, North Way, and North Sky, which were previously identified as part of Russia’s “dark fleet” of vessels used to evade sanctions.
Amid concerns that Russia may be building a shadow fleet of LNG carriers, similar to its approach with oil tankers, U.S. sanctions aim to curb Russia’s ability to use these vessels for unauthorized trade.
To bypass sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, Russian companies have been acquiring secondhand LNG tankers through front companies in third-party countries to address the project’s tanker shortage. The U.S. has intensified sanctions to block such efforts, further restricting Russia’s access to the global LNG market.
