More importantly, the holding companies behind three vessels of the same type built by South Korean shipyard Hanwha Ocean have also been sanctioned. 

These measures will further restrict Hanwha’s ability to offload the vessels to new owners or transfer them to Novatek through the use of legal loopholes.

The shipyard has completed four vessels, all of which have undergone sea and gas trials and were projected to start servicing the Arctic LNG 2 project this year.

Sanctions delay first shipments

Novatek and Russian officials originally announced deliveries from the project to begin in January followed by comments suggesting initial shipments won’t occur until March. With the new sanctions further delays now appear likely.

Additional measures target Novatek’s Belokamenka construction yard where massive prefabricated modules arriving from shipyards across China are assembled onto floating platforms. 

The yard completed the first train, or production line, during summer 2023 and the floating platform also known as a gravity based system was subsequently towed to Arctic LNG 2’s location on Gydan peninsula in August 2023.