Four gas carriers transporting Yamal LNG have stopped and are standing idle off the coast of Spain. Another tanker will join them soon. Obviously, the first Arctic project cannot use ships yet, since all LNG goes to Europe, despite restrictions, and only one cargo has been sent to China in recent months.
LNG tankers Lena River, Yenisei River, Clean Vision and Clean Planet are idle off the coast of Spain. If the last one joined the three gas carriers only yesterday, then the rest have been idle for weeks. According to AIS vessels, soon they may be joined by another gas carrier. The Clean Ocean gas carrier follows from Murmansk, but its draft indicates that the vessel can go without cargo.
All five vessels are operated by the Greek Dynagas and serve Yamal LNG. These tankers do not have an ice class and are used to receive LNG from ice-class gas carriers and deliver Yamal gas through Europe to Asia.
Obviously, the vessels are not in demand for a simple reason. At the end of April, the EU introduced the first restrictions against Russian LNG, banning imports under short-term contracts, but supplies did not decrease. As before, the entire volume of Yamal gas, except for rare shipments, goes to EU countries, which reduces the load on tankers.
Yamal LNG has six more conventional tankers, but they are also involved in European deliveries.
As EADaily reported, a month has passed since the introduction of the first ban on the import of Russian LNG to the EU, under short-term contracts. However, only two of the seventeen gas carriers passed by Europe. And then — one of them returned to Europe. Yamal LNG continues to be one of the main sources of gas for Spain, France, Belgium and Germany.