Any USA sanction on India-Registered Firms to Ship LNG from Russia, needs retaliatory sanction by India
In August, Ocean Speedstar Solutions OPC Pvt Ltd, a company registered in Mumbai, was sanctioned by USA for attempting to transport LNG from Russia’s Arctic project. Now Tpthe US government has imposed sanctions on two more companies, both registered in India, for attempting to export liquefied natural gas from a Russian project that America had sanctioned.
Now enough is enough, such “ dadagiri “ cannot and should not be tolerated by Indians. India too must sanction any USA Department or entities which try tosanction Indian Companies / entities.
In an announcement Thursday, the US Department of State announced that it had imposed further sanctions to “degrade Russia’s ability to operationalise the Arctic LNG 2 project”. This project, being developed in the Arctic region of Russia, is expected to produce 19.8 million metric tonnes of LNG per year.
“In today’s actions, the Department of State is targeting two entities and two vessels connected to attempts to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S.-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project,” the State Department said in a statement.
It added that the two companies—Gotik Energy Shipping Co (Gotik) and Plio Energy Cargo Shipping OPC Pvt Ltd (Plio Energy)—were the registered owner and commercial manager, respectively, of the LNG carrier ship ‘New Energy’.
On 25 August, New Energy had shut off its automatic identification system, to load cargo from the U.S.-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project using a ship-to-ship transfer with the LNG carrier ‘Pioneer’, which was blocked by the US on 23 August. The State Department added that it had also identified and sanctioned an additional vessel named ‘Mulan’, which was managed and operated by Plio Energy.
Simultaneously, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the US Department of Treasury said it was updating its list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) to include Gotik and Plio Energy.
According to the Department of Treasury’s website, SDNs include “individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries.
Notably, the OFAC announcement mentioned that Gotik’s registered office was in Thane, Maharashtra, with a complete address, and in Liberia, without mentioning additional details on its address there. Plio Energy, on the other hand, was listed as having only one address—in Thane.
The two shipping vessels New Energy and Mulan were also added to the SDN list, although the statement said that these were Palau-flagged.
“In an attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions on, and revitalise, Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, Russian companies have engaged in efforts to procure second hand LNG tankers, predominantly through front companies in third country jurisdictions, to make up for a critical shortage of available tankers for the Arctic LNG 2 project,” the Department of Treasury said in a statement.
The department added that it had identified two such LNG carriers—Pioneer and Asya Energy—that had been “recently acquired” by Ocean Speedstar Solutions.
“Pioneer and Asya Energy entered Russian territorial waters in late July 2024 and proceeded to engage in a number of deceptive shipping practices, such as shutting off the vessels’ automatic identification system (AIS), as well as manipulating the vessels’ AIS to broadcast false locations,” the statement added.
While producing a false AIS signature, Pioneer went to the Utrenneye terminal at the Arctic LNG 2 project and commercial satellite imagery revealed that the vessel was loading LNG from the Arctic LNG 2 facility from 1 to 3 August, the statement said. Similarly, from 9 to 11 August, Asya Energy was identified by commercial satellite imagery and seen loading LNG from the Utrenneye terminal at the Arctic LNG 2 facility, it added.
India needs LNG and will keep importing it from Russia as lond as te price is acceptable by us. No third country can be permitted to interfere in the process.
