LONDON (Reuters) – Britain on Thursday sanctioned five ships and two associated entities involved in transporting Russian LNG, and the government said it was using new legal powers for the first time to target LNG carriers directly.
“Earlier this year, the UK sanctioned Arctic LNG 2, along with our US and EU allies. Since then, the project has been forced to scale back production,” the government’s statement said.
“Today’s action builds on this by targeting vessels and entities involved in the Russian LNG sector, which engage in projects important to Russia’s future energy production.”
Thursday’s sanctioned entities were White Fox Ship Management and Ocean Speedstar Solutions OPC. The vessels were Asya Energy, Pioneer, North Sky, SCF La Perouse and Nova Energy.
Earlier this month, Britain imposed sanctions on another 10 ships in Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships it says use illegal methods to evade Western restrictions on Russian oil.
Russia is rejecting Western pressure to limit its oil exports, and in the past year there has been an increase in the number of tankers carrying cargoes that are not regulated or insured by conventional Western suppliers.
(Reporting by Muvija M; Writing by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by William James)