New Russian-Flagged LNG Tanker Appears to Load US-Sanctioned Gas

A liquefied natural gas tanker that recently switched flags to Russia appears to be loading fuel from a US-sanctioned project, marking Moscow’s latest move to expand its dark fleet designed to circumvent Western restrictions.

The Merkuriy, which changed flags to Russia earlier this year and also switched owners to a little-known company, docked next to the US-sanctioned Saam floating storage unit near Murmansk in western Russia, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Kpler. Saam is used to hold LNG from the blacklisted Arctic LNG 2 project.