EU shipyards continue to repair Russian ice-class gas carriers despite sanctions, — FT

European shipyards are still repairing Russian ice-class gas carriers that carry liquefied gas.

In particular, the Damen shipyards in France and Fayard in Denmark continue to repair Russian vessels for the transportation of liquefied gas, bypassing sanctions, the FT reports.

These are Russian ice-class Arc7 tankers that transport liquefied natural gas from the Russian Yamal plant.

This gives Russia the opportunity to export energy despite sanctions even in winter, when gas prices reach their maximum.

Thus, 14 of the 15 tankers in the Arc7 fleet were serviced at the indicated shipyards. Damen confirmed that it had repaired several Russian gas carriers, and noted that it acted “in accordance with European law.” Damen also assured that it did not plan to repair these vessels in the near future. Fayard has not yet commented on the situation.

In 2023, the Yamal plant exported 20.9 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe – about 85-90% of Russian liquefied gas imports to the EU.

Earlier, USM reported that Spain is demanding new sanctions against Russian LNG, despite significant import volumes.