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Four shadow fleet tankers sanctioned by Britain
On June 16, Britain has imposed sanctions on the LNG carriers 'Orion', 'Merkuriy', 'Kosmos' and 'Luch', all linked to Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, becoming the first G7 country to target the latest vessels acquired to expand exports from the sanctioned Arctic plant. The newly sanctioned vessels were part of a growing LNG “shadow fleet” assembled by the Russian gas producer Novatek to overcome severe shipping constraints that have hampered Arctic LNG 2 since Western sanctions were imposed. London determined there were reasonable grounds to suspect the vessels were involved in transporting Russian LNG to third countries. In the case of the 'Merkuriy', the government said that the vessel was involved in carrying liquefied natural gas that originated in Russia from a place in Russia to a third country, following a ship-to-ship transfer with the Saam FSU near Murmansk. The sanctions were announced as part of a broader package targeting Russia’s war economy, including banks, military procurement networks and more than 20 oil and gas vessels. Britain said it was the first G7 nation to sanction these newly acquired vessels linked to Arctic LNG 2. The four LNG carriers were purchased recently through a network of intermediaries and subsequently reflagged and renamed before entering service for Russia’s Arctic export chain. All four vessels were currently en route to China carrying LNG cargoes originating from Arctic LNG 2. The cargoes were transferred ship-to-ship in the Murmansk region after being transported from Arctic LNG 2 by Russia’s icebreaking LNG carriers, highlighting the increasingly complex logistics network Moscow has developed to keep exports moving despite sanctions.
Russia linked LNG tanker oserved at sanctioned Arctic LNG 2,project
The 'Merkuriy', which was recently reflagged to Russia alongside three other tankers, has been observed loading LNG at the FSU 'Saam' (IMO: 9915090). The tanker was one of four LNG carriers, besides the 'Kosmos', 'Luch' and 'Orion', which had been part of Oman’s Asyad Shipping fleet and were sold en bloc for about $110 million. There was mounting evidence that the ships are were integrated into the logistics chain supporting Arctic LNG 2, a sanctioned Russian LNG project in the Gydan Peninsula. The facility relies on ship-to-ship transfers at offshore infrastructure, including the FSU 'Saam' especially during winter and spring when sea ice limits access. The 'Merkuriy' was alongside the 'Saam' over the weekend of May 9-10, 2026. At the same time, the Arc7 ice-class tanker 'Alexey Kosygin' was also observed discharging LNG at the facility, underscoring a coordinated transfer activity at the hub. Two of the other recently reflagged vessels, the 'Kosmos' and 'Orion', have already arrived in Arctic waters and were positioned near the 'Saam', while the 'Luch' was ransiting north along Norway’s coastline. If all four ships would be brought into service for Arctic LNG 2 logistics, the project’s effective export transport capacity could rise by about 40%, easing bottlenecks created by sanctions and lengthy detours to avoid Mediterranean waters. The Arctic LNG 2 project was currently operating ten conventional or light ice-class LNG carriers, supplemented by two Arc7 high ice-class vessels that were shuttling cargo from the production site to the 'Saam' for onward loading onto conventional tankers.
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