President Joe Biden and the US administration are now putting additional constraints on Russia’s energy exports and construction of liquefied natural gas carriers, according to a press release from the US Department of the Treasury.

”Russia’s war economy is deeply isolated from the international financial system, leaving the Kremlin’s military desperate for access to the outside world,” says Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in the announcement.

”Today’s actions strike at their remaining avenues for international materials and equipment, including their reliance on critical supplies from third countries.”

Ahead of the G7 countries, including the US, meeting this week in Italy, the US Treasury Department has issued a new set of sanctions against Russian business, banks, energy sector, shipyards, shipping and key individuals.

Some 300 individuals and legal entities are expected to be covered by the new sanctions, which aim to stifle Russia’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

The new sanctions will hit Russia’s financing of exports and business, but also to ”limit Russia’s future energy revenues and impede Russia’s development of future energy projects,” it says.

Therefore, the sanctions focus on targeting three liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects that Russia hopes to bring into operation in the future: Obsky LNG, Arctic LNG 1 and Arctic LNG 3 projects.

The new sanctions have also singled out three legal entities involved in either the construction of natural gas-related projects or the manufacture of specialized equipment for LNG transportation.

These include four LNG carriers being built for the state-owned Russian shipping company Sovcomflot and three other LNG carriers under construction at the Russian shipyard Zvezda.

It has also been reported that the European Union may consider following the US example and impose new sanctions on Russia’s largest shipowner, Sovcomflot.

Source: ShippingWatch

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	Issue 91 of Robban Assafina (May/ June 2024)