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EU ships are repairing Russia's ice-class tankers and providing dry dock facilities, allowing Moscow to continue supplying gas to the Arctic without western sanctions on its energy sector.
Despite maintenance work – provided by Damen shipyard in Brest, France, and Fayard A/S in Denmark – Russia's Yamal LNG plant is struggling to reach important markets in winter when gas prices are at their highest in the northern hemisphere.
The two yards served 14 of the 15-strong fleet of Arc7 special vessels from Yamal LNG on Russia's northern coast, according to satellite imagery and call tracking data from Kpler, a data and analytics company. Some ships are called multiple times.
“If the two ships were off-limits, that would put everything in doubt,” said Malte Humpert, an Arctic shipping expert at High North News who has tracked the ships. “They can get service elsewhere but that means they're well on their way.”
Eight tankers have entered Damen, while Fayard has operated nine since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Most of the vessels are energy and shipping companies including Greece's Dynagas and Canada's Teekay.
Damen confirmed that it repaired “several vessels involved in the transportation of Russian LNG” but added that it “directly adheres to the European sanctions law” and “was not involved in the selection of cargo by the shipping companies that operate these vessels”.
“No further repairs to these LNG vessels are planned for the foreseeable future,” it said.
Fayard did not respond to a breathalyzer request.
Eliminating Russian gas is a key policy objective of the European Commission. However, the target of reducing the EU's use of Russian fossil fuels to zero by 2027 has been thrown out despite an increase in Russian LNG imports, most of which is supplied by Yamal.
The activities of ships and yards are not allowed because of the carving of energy transport and because there is no Russian flag, and special tanks will not be able to distribute their cargo without the technical and maintenance of European yards.
The only vessel not yet in either of the two yards is the Christophe de Margerie, owned by the well-known Russian shipping company Sovcomflot.
The EU agreed to pay for the ship itself – the first step in the bloc to impose any sanctions on the activities of Yamal – on December 16. The US has already hit the Yamal project with waves of sanctions.
Christophe de Margerie's inability to reach repair yards in Europe has put the ship out of service for six months, showing Arc7's reliance on European know-how and parts, Humpert said.
From Yamal, ships can either sail to Europe or take the longer and more dangerous route across the North Sea to China. The eastern route is navigable only in the warmer months, with Novatek – the owner of Yamal LNG – trying a longer shipping window.
The Arc7 LNG carriers were built in South Korea at a cost of about $333 million per vessel, according to research by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
They are over 200m long and can carry around 170,000 cubic meters of natural gas with a specially designed 'Azipod' propulsion system for navigating through thick ice.
One European shipyard said the French and Danish yards, both of which have dry docks large enough for offshore vessels, are the only ones “that can handle the Arc7s and at the same time be well positioned”.
While Russian crude oil and coal have been condemned, gas remains outside the bloc's sanctions regime amid concerns about security of supply.
In the first step to end gas imports, EU countries agreed in June to ban Russian LNG exports from March. This will prevent the use of EU ports to transfer gas from ice-class vessels to cheaper conventional vessels for export.
Yamal LNG exported 20.9bn cubic meters to Europe in 2023, according to OIES, of which about a quarter was exported to countries outside the bloc. Supply from Yamal makes up about 85 to 90 percent of the EU's Russian LNG exports, according to think tank Bond Beter Leefmilieu.
Additional information by Shotaro Tani in London