South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean has quashed talk of a change of ownership on the first of three Arc7 LNG carriers originally contracted by Russian owner Sovcomflot but later cancelled by the yard.
A spokesperson for the shipbuilder told TradeWinds that the 172,600-cbm newbuilding Pyotr Kapitsa remains under the ownership of Hanwha Ocean.
In February, attention became focused on the specialised LNG newbuilding when the vessel’s ownership was changed to New Transshipment FZE in S&P Global’s IHS Markit database — the information which feeds through to Equasis.
Market speculation, reported by this publication, circulated that this could signal that the ship was being readied for delivery.
But Hanwha Ocean’s spokesperson said: “We understand that the IHS Markit database published the incorrect historical ownership incorrectly linked with New Transshipment FZE, which was subsequently amended.”
Pyotr Kapitsa is one of three Arc7 LNG carrier newbuilding at Hanwha Ocean that were slapped with sanctions by the US in a large package of measures announced on 23 February on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and following the death of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) included Elixon Shipping, Azoria Shipping and Glorina Shipping on its new sanctions list on Friday. These are the three single-purpose shipowning entities of three Arc7 newbuildings under construction at Hanwha Ocean — respectively the Pyotr Kapitsa, the Lev Landau and Zhores Alferov.
The trio of ships and a further three contracted at the yard by Mitsui OSK Lines were ordered to ship cargoes from Russian energy company Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project in the Russian Arctic which has also been hit by Western sanctions.
The US has already slapped sanctions on this project and on Thursday the UK followed suit.
This week MOL clarified to TradeWinds that its three Arc7 newbuildings were not included on the US’ latest sanctions list.
MOL said the delivery dates for the three ships, which were originally scheduled for handovers in 2024, have now been delayed due to the ongoing labour force shortages being experienced by Korean shipbuilders.
The US has already slapped sanctions on this project and on Thursday the UK followed suit.
