Damen and Fayard refute sanction-busting allegations
Christophe de Margerie, one of the Arc 7 LNG carriers, cannot be repaired without a breach of sanctions (Source: Sovcomflot)
Both Damen and Fayard have refuted accusations of sanction-busting in the course of repairing Arc 7 icebreaking LNG carriers for use at the Russian Yamal LNG project.
An Financial Times article last week highlighted that the two yards are critical to the maintenance of the Yamal fleet, “enabling Moscow to continue moving gas through the Arctic despite western sanctions on its energy sector.”
Arc 7 vessel Christophe De Margerie, owned and operated by SCF, appears to have been out of action for seven months, having left China’s Jinhai Ship Industry Shipyard in October. Various of Russia’s icebreaker fleet, as well, are thought to be unrepairable as a result of sanctions.
But various Arc 7 vessels owned by Greece’s Dynagas, Canada’s Teekay and Bermuda’s Seapeak Maritime, have been repaired at Damen Shiprepair Brest and Denmark’s Fayard A/S since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These vessels are used to carry Russian LNG, but are flagged elsewhere. Asked if it were possible to repair a vessel for carrying LNG while adhering to sanctions, one Damen spokesperson told Ship Repair Newsletter: “When the ships visit our shipyards, they’re not carrying any cargo.”
“We adhere to the applicable EU sanctions legislation and monitor this on an ongoing basis… we do not have any further comments,” Thomas Andersen, CEO of Fayard, told Ship Repair Newsletter.
The fate of six Arc-7 icebreakers with a capacity of 172,600m3, under construction at the South Korean shipyard Hanwha Ocean, remains uncertain. Commissioned by SCF before the war, sanctions forbid the vessel from being delivered to it.
