A US-sanctioned LNG carrier linked to Russia’s shadow fleet has transited the Suez Canal and is heading into the Red Sea.
Kpler data shows the 138,000-cbm Pioneer (ex-Pioneer Spirit, built 2005) moving through the canal today in ballast.
No destination is given for the vessel, which appears to be heading south into the Red Sea.
Pioneer previously loaded a first cargo at Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 plant in Russia at the beginning of August.
But after shipping this to the eastern Mediterranean, it later discharged the shipment into another now-sanctioned LNG carrier, the 149,700-cbm New Energy (ex-Neo Energy, built 2007).
The New Energy has returned to Russia with the transshipped volumes. Russian “shadow ship” watchers expect these to be discharged onto the 361,600-cbm Saam FSU (built 2023), which is anchored to the north of Murmansk.
LNG carriers have largely been absent from the Suez Canal and Red Sea waters since mid-January, when attacks against merchant vessels by Yemen’s Houthi militia ramped up in response to the Israeli-Gaza conflict.
But two LNG carriers — the 137,200-cbm steam turbine Asya Energy (ex-Trader IV, built 2002) and 138,000-cbm Everest Energy (ex-Metagas Everett, built 2003) — also travelled northbound in ballast through the waterway in June and July respectively.
Both non-ice-class, elderly vessels went on to load cargoes at Arctic LNG 2 and have since moved shipments through the Northern Sea Route.
The two vessels and the liquefaction facility have also been sanctioned by the US as it attempts to block Russian efforts to earn cash for LNG exports in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
