The UK has slapped sanctions on Sovomflot in the latest setback for the Russian shipowner.
Amid a flurry of blacklistings from Western powers on Thursday, the tanker and gas carrier owner was added to London’s sanctions list alongside 59 others — subjecting it to an asset freeze in the country.
Sovcomflot was already sanctioned in the European Union, blocked from tapping US debt and equity markets, and had its ships refused from UK ports as part of a blanket ban on Russian vessels.
The company, which maintains an office in London with an active telephone number as of Thursday night, has been approached for comment.
Sovcomflot has 90 ships in its fleet, according to VesselsValue. This includes 70 tankers, 24 of which are aframaxes, along with 12 LNG carriers and two LPG carriers.
The sanctions are the latest broadside fired against Russian shipping.
Since Russian troops began pouring over the Ukrainian border on 24 February, charterers have fled from Russian-linked tonnage, partially over concerns that cargoes or the ships themselves could land on sanctions lists.
Russian vessels have increasingly been left out at sea without a destination following port bans from the UK and Canada and the US decision to refuse all Russian energy imports. Russian port calls have dropped.
Classification societies have begun dropping Russian clients and the International Association of Classification Societies dropped the Russian Register’s membership earlier this month.
Sovcomflot itself has stayed quiet on Western retaliation against the invasion.
The company did not comment on the US move to lock it out of its financial markets and, in announcing its annual earnings on 16 March, it elected to forgo the typical conference call.
For 2021, its earnings dropped to $35.8m from $267m in 2020 as revenue dipped to $1.54bn from $1.65bn amid a weak tanker market.
Thursday’s sanctions came as the US blacklisted hundreds of Russian elite, politicians and defence companies, and the US and European leaders agreed to work together on cracking down on sanctions evasion.
