Mysterious Dubai Firm Takes Control of Russian LNG Ships in Apparent Effort to Skirt Sanctions

Updated: October 20, 2024 (Originally published October 18, 2024)

(Bloomberg) —

A newly established company in Dubai has taken over three liquefied natural gas tankers, in what appears to be Russia’s latest effort to circumvent Western sanctions.

Velikiy Novgorod, Pskov and La Perouse — formerly Russian-managed vessels — have had aspects of their management transfered to a company called Matias Ship Management in September, according to Equasis, a global shipping database. Dubai-based shell companies are often used to procure tankers, obscuring their ultimate ownership and governance from Western authorities. 

Russia is utilizing a network of shell companies stretching from Dubai to China in order to ship gas from the Arctic LNG 2 facility, which was sanctioned by the US last year. Opaque ownership structure is a typical feature of shadow fleet vessels.

The registered address for Matias Ship Management is a shared office space in the Meydan Hotel, the same location as another Dubai-based firm — Nur Global Shipping — that’s suspected of helping Russia to gather shadow fleet vessels. The hotel is located in a free trade zone that has previously been criticized by the US and some local officials for its lack of transparency.

Matias Ship Management doesn’t have a website, a registered email or a phone number. Calls to Meydan Hotel’s business center went unanswered.

Velikiy Novgorod, Pskov and La Perouse were all previously managed by Russia’s Gazprom PJSC or Sovcomflot PJSC, according to Equasis. Two of the vessels are now owned by companies with the same address as Matias Ship Management, which a UAE business database shows was established in August.

The Pskov is owned by a company called Nephrite Shipping Inc., Equasis shows. Its address — 103, Sham Peng Tong Plaza in the Seychelles — has been commonly used for shell companies, Global Witness revealed in a 2012 report.

All three vessels have been serving the smaller Portovaya LNG export plant on Russia’s Baltic shore, which hasn’t been slapped with western restrictions. However, the UK sanctioned Velikiy Novgorod earlier this week and La Perouse last month.

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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This article contains reporting from Bloomberg, published under license.

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