On a dark and stormy December 9th last month, the tanker ship Chris. De Margerie snuck out of Novatek’s marine export terminal in Yamal, Russia, its storage tanks brimming with LNG. But the United States has active sanctions imposed against trafficking with Novatek. The US imposed the sanctions against Novatek, Russia’s largest non-state gas company, after Russia’s Crimean and Ukraine aggressions.
So the Chris De Margerie needed to disguise the origins of its illicit cargo from Novatek. On December 28, it offloaded the fuel at a terminal near London, England.
Just two days later, the Engie SA Gaselys tanker appeared at the same terminal, loaded up with LNG, and set sail for Boston, estimated arrival January 22. While it had diverted course towards the Mediterranean, the Engie tanker is still scheduled to dock in Boston on the 22nd. Engie has operated an LNG terminal north of Boston for almost 50 years.
www.reuters.com/…
It’s unclear how fuel from a sanctioned Russian company will legally be trafficked in the United States. I, for one, will be fascinated, and outraged, to see how it’s done.