Olena Buturlim15:34, 07/02/24

British operators and insurers ensure the supply of liquefied natural gas by tankers.

Europe and Russia remain locked in a strained relationship of economic dependence, with British firms in particular helping to support the supply of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. This is stated in the Sky News article .

It is noted that the little-known company Seapeak from Glasgow has become an accomplice in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. It owns the Yakov Gakkel tanker, one of the world’s most advanced liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, which has an unusual trick up its sleeve. LNG tankers are extraordinary ships, the internal structures of which are so well thought out that they are able to store huge volumes of natural gas at a temperature of about -163°C.

Transportation of LNG by tankers

According to journalists, Yakov Gakkel can do what most other LNG tankers cannot. It can break ice, which allows it to travel to the Arctic Circle and back, even in winter. This is exactly what he does, delivering huge volumes of gas from Russian Siberia to Europe. This partly explains why Europe never ran out of gas, even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At a time when the volume of Russian pipeline gas reaching Europe has fallen sharply, Russian LNG shipments have risen to record levels.

Europe still depends on Russian gas

The article also points out that Europe is currently still dependent on Russia for about 15% of its gas, an increasing share of which comes by sea on tankers like the Yakov Gakkel. Last month, Russia overtook the United States to become the continent’s second largest supplier of gas. This is further evidence that LNG volumes transported by ships across the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel are constantly increasing. This dependence was not cheap: Europe paid Russia about 10 billion euros for LNG from 2022.

European leaders have banned Russia from using its ports for “transshipment” of LNG – an intermediate point on the way to other destinations. However, these transshipments account for a maximum of a quarter of the Russian gas supplied by tankers to Europe. The vast majority goes to Belgium, France and Spain.

Yakov Gakkel and a flotilla of liquefied gas tankers continue to sail between Siberia and various European ports – Zeebrugge, Dunkirk, Montoire and Bilbao – supplying the continent with Russian hydrocarbons, without which it still cannot live, the author writes.

The role of British companies in the transportation of Russian gas

Journalists emphasize that Yakov Gakkel is an important cog in the financial machine that helps finance the Russian regime. However, it is partly owned and operated by a British company. Seapeak owns and operates a fleet of LNG tankers around the world, including the Yakov Gakkel and 4 other LNG icebreakers plying the Siberian route. The fact that a British company can facilitate this profitable trade for Russia may surprise, but there is nothing illegal about it: it’s just that the regime of sanctions against Russia was not so perfect.

Seapeak is not the only British company helping to keep Russian gas flowing. While British insurers are banned from protecting oil tankers carrying Russian oil, there are no similar sanctions against Russian LNG ships. After all, many of these tankers are insured by British companies operating in the “square mile”. Another icebreaker “Volodymyr Rusanov” is insured by the British P&I Club, which also insures a number of other LNG carriers

The British Club, which monitors compliance with all sanctions regulations regarding Russian energy cargoes, for example, told journalists that the direct transportation of LNG from Yamal to Zeebrugge and the provision of insurance services for such transportation are currently not subject to sanctions.

“The transport of Russian gas to Europe – its dependence on British operators and insurers – is just one small example of the loopholes and omissions in the UK sanctions regime. But while government ministers have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the wider sanctions regime, there is little evidence so far that they intend to step it up… Ships like the Yakov Gakkel continue to transport billions of cubic meters of gas from the Yamal gas fields in Siberia to Europe in exchange for billions of euros.And these and other hydrocarbon revenues are one of the main reasons why Russia is able to produce more missiles and weapons than Ukrainians,” Sky News writes.

Russian LNG – the latest news

Earlier, UNIAN wrote that Europe got off the “gas needle” of the Russian Federation, but a new dependence appeared . Dependence on LNG poses potential problems for Europe in the future, creating dependence on different suppliers, exposing it to a highly volatile market and potentially delaying the bloc’s progress towards the legally binding goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

In addition, after oil, Russia can form a shadow fleet for gas. There is growing evidence that Moscow has begun to do the same with liquefied natural gas.

(c)UNIAN 2024