European shipyards are repairing Russian Arctic tankers for Yamal LNG — FT

EU shipyards are repairing Russian ice-class tankers and offering them dry-dock facilities, which allows Moscow to continue transporting gas through the Arctic, despite Western sanctions against its energy sector. It is reported by the Financial Times.

Without maintenance work carried out by Damen shipyards in French Brest and Danish Fayard A/S, it will be difficult for the Russian Yamal LNG plant to gain access to the most important markets in winter, when gas prices in the northern hemisphere are at the highest level, the newspaper writes.

According to satellite images and data from the data processing and analytics company Kpler, the two above-mentioned shipyards serviced 14 of the 15 Arc7 special tankers from Yamal LNG, some vessels several times.

"If these two shipyards were closed, it would call into question all logistics operations. They could get a service somewhere else, but that would mean deviating from their route," says High North News, an Arctic transportation specialist who has been tracking the movements of ships, Malte Humpert.

Eight tankers have entered Damen, and Fayard has serviced nine since the SMO began. Most of the vessels are owned by energy and shipping companies, including the Greek Dynagas and the Canadian Teekay.

Damen confirmed that it had repaired "several vessels involved in the transportation of Russian liquefied natural gas," but noted that this "strictly complied with European sanctions legislation" and that it "did not participate in the selection of cargo by shipping companies operating these vessels."

"Further repairs of these vessels for liquefied natural gas are not planned in the near future," the report says.

The only tanker of the fleet that did not enter either of the two shipyards is Christophe de Margerie, owned by the sanctioned Russian shipping company Sovcomflot.

According to a certain European shipbuilding broker, the French and Danish shipyards, which have dry docks large enough for oversized tankers, are "the only ones that are capable of servicing Arc7 and at the same time are located in the right place."