The U.S. government has sanctioned four Singapore-based shipping companies, accusing them of facilitating Russia’s efforts in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed the four companies on the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List).
The U.S. Departments of the Treasury, State, and Commerce announced on October 31 that the United States had taken action against nearly 400 entities and individuals globally for “enabling Russia’s prosecution of its illegal war”. Among them were sanctions against four Singapore-based shipping companies, claiming that they were shipping companies associated with the “Arctic LNG 2” (Arctic LNG 2) project.
The four shipping companies are LNG Alpha Shipping Pte Ltd, LNG Beta Shipping Pte Ltd, LNG Delta Shipping Pte Ltd and LNG Gamma Shipping Pte Ltd.
LNG Alpha Shipping, LNG Beta Shipping, LNG Delta Shipping and LNG Gamma Shipping are the owners of the U.S.-sanctioned liquefied natural gas carriers “North Air”, “North Mountain”, ‘North Way’ and ‘North Sky’, respectively. All four companies are majority-owned by New Transhipment FZE, a UAE-based subsidiary of Novatek, Russia’s largest LNG producer, and are recognized as part of the shipping network that helps Novatek’s gas business.
The U.S. State Department said the Arctic LNG 2 project relies on foreign service companies for technical and maritime logistics support. It also added that in order to circumvent U.S. sanctions and revitalize Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, Russian companies have been working to procure second-hand LNG carriers, mainly through front companies in third-country jurisdictions, in order to make up for the acute shortage of vessels available for the Arctic LNG 2 project.