The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said that the United States has imposed sanctions on several companies associated with the fraudulent circumvention of sanctions on the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the sanctioned ALNG2 facility. McFaul-Yermak's group has been monitoring this case, UNN reports .
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In early August, three vessels - Pioneer, Asya Energy, and Everest Energy - used to manipulate or disable their automatic identification systems (AIS) to load the first cargoes from ALNG2. The Pioneer vessel was the first to load product on August 1, the Asya Energy on August 10, and the Everest Energy on August 25.
On August 23, the US imposed sanctions against Ocean Speedstar Solutions OPC and Zara Shipholding Co. related to these shipments, and blocked the Pioneer, Asya Energy and Everest Energy vessels as Ocean Speedstar assets.
On August 25, the Pioneer spoofed its location via AIS during the transfer of cargo to the New Energy vessel through a ship-to-ship operation. The United States also imposed sanctions on Gotik Energy Shipping Co, the owner of the New Energy vessel, and Plio Energy Cargo Shipping OPC, which operates the New Energy and Mulan. Both vessels will be blocked.
This is yet another example of the United States' tight control over compliance with sanctions against the Russian energy sector.