Russia has added a 19-year-old tanker to its shadow fleet to circumvent sanctions against LNG

The Russian Federation continues to actively expand its “shadow fleet” for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). This time, a 19-year-old tanker was deployed for the transport, loading fuel for the first time at a facility subject to strict Western sanctions. 

According to an analysis of vessel tracking data, the gas carrier “Arctic Express” took on fuel from the “Saam” floating storage unit in the Murmansk region. This terminal stores the output of the strategic Russian “Arctic LNG 2” project. It is worth noting that both the “Saam” storage facility and the “Arctic LNG 2” plant itself were previously added to U.S. sanctions lists.

What is known about the new “shadow fleet” tanker:

• Age and origin: The vessel was commissioned in 2007 (according to the Equasis ship database). It was previously operated by a Greek company.

• Change of ownership: In May of this year, the tanker officially came under the control of the St. Petersburg-registered company “Smp Techmanagement LLC” and changed its flag to the Russian flag.

• Associated fleet: The aforementioned firm, “Smp Techmanagement,” already owns at least three other large liquefied gas carriers that are involved in similar schemes by Moscow to circumvent international restrictions.

This serves as yet another confirmation of the Kremlin’s efforts to expand the geographic reach of its export shipments despite resistance from Western countries. To date, at least 21 vessels have been involved in transporting fuel from sanctioned Russian gas projects.

Despite Russia’s constant attempts to buy up old foreign tankers through front companies, the shortage of specialized maritime transport remains the biggest obstacle to the full-scale operation of the “Arctic LNG 2” project. Moscow is in dire need of ice-class gas carriers capable of delivering fuel to customers under difficult navigation conditions, but international isolation severely limits these capabilities.

At the same time, in May, the “Arctic LNG 2” project managed to ship a record 400,000 metric tons of fuel for export—the highest figure since the first deliveries began.