By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Russia appears to be trying to evade Western sanctions on its LNG tanker fleet by transferring ownership of vessels to a newly-created firm based in a free trade zone in Dubai, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Three LNG tankers, previously managed by the Russian companies Gazprom and Sovcomflot, now have a new owner, a Dubai-based firm. The vessels Velikiy Novgorod, Pskov, and La Perouse saw aspects of their management transferred to Matias Ship Management, the newly established company in Dubai, in September, Bloomberg reported, citing global shipping database Equasis.

Matias Ship Management’s registered address is at the Meydan Hotel in Dubai, a free trade zone, where other companies suspected of helping Russia amass its shadow fleet of oil and LNG tankers are based, according to Bloomberg. 

The three LNG tankers have been serving the smaller Portovaya LNG export plant on Russia’s Baltic Sea. Portovaya LNG is not subject to Western sanctions or export restrictions. 

Two of the tankers, Velikiy Novgorod and La Perouse, are under UK sanctions.

Velikiy Novgorod was slapped with sanctions just yesterday as the UK imposed the largest round of sanctions to date against Russia’s shadow fleet, designating an additional 18 oil tankers and four LNG tankers as it seeks to cut critical revenues for Vladimir Putin.

Russia has started to amass a dark fleet of tankers to ship its LNG in vessel ownership transfers similar to the moves that Moscow began after the invasion of Ukraine to create a shadow fleet to export oil and products in the face of Western sanctions.

Some tankers have recently departed from the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 terminal in northern Russia, signaling Moscow’s continued efforts to circumvent Western restrictions. 

In August, the U.S. State Department intensified efforts to derail Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 exports by targeting companies involved in the development of the project and vessels found to have loaded LNG from the facility.