Shadow fleet plays name game in Arctic waters
The owners of the LNG tankers that have lied idle in the Russian part of the Barents Sea for almost five months suddenly decided to give the ships new names and flag states.
"It is a kind of market acrobatics we seldom see in the serious part of the international LNG-fleet," Norvald Kjerstad says.
The Norwegian professor in ice navigation pays a close eye to shipping in far northern waters and has followed the fleet of sanctioned LNG carriers that for almost half a year have drifted and zigzagged in the eastern part of the Barents Sea.
The carriers, several of them brand new, are on the EU and US sanctions lists and considered part of Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet.’
"There are many interesting things going on at the moment," Kjerstad says to the Barents Observer.
According to the professor, four of the carriers in mid April 2025 changed names. The North Air, North Mountain, North Sky and North Way now carry the name Buran, Voskhod, Iris and Zarya respectively. They have also changed flag state from Panama to Russia.
The ships all have ice class Arc4, which allows them to sail in light sea ice. Under tougher conditions, the Arc4 tankers need escort from icebreakers.
Kjerstad does not exclude that the tankers will be applied for sailing across the Northern Sea Route as soon as the sea ice melts in summer.
"But there is very bad economy in applying such advanced and costly ships for only 3-4 months per year," he argues.
Among the sanctioned carriers is also the Christophe de Margerie, Russia’s first top ice-class LNG tanker of the Yamal2max-class.
For five months, the Christophe de Margerie has drifted and sailed back-and-forth in the area of the Kara Gate, the waters that separate the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea.
Also Mulan, the only carrier that has loaded LNG at the sanctioned Saam FSU in the Ura Bay, has changed flag state. The ship previously sailed under the flag of Panama, but is now registered in Curacau, Kjerstad explains.
The Mulan in December 2024 sailed into the Ura Bay and loaded natural gas at the 400 meter long floating storage unit. The ship subsequently set course for the Egyptian port of Poet Said in the Mediterranean.
Since the visit of Mulan, the Saam FSU has lied idle in the remote north Russian fjord.
According to Norvald Kjerstad, growing volumes of the Russian LNG are now reloaded by the island of Kildin north of Murmansk.
Several of sister ships of the Christophe de Margerie now shuttle between the LNG terminal in Sabetta in Yamal Peninsula and Kildin, where the LNG is reloaded to conventional tankers. The tankers that load at Kildin sail to China, Kjerstad explains.
Many of the so-called shadow fleet tankers that transport sanctioned Russian oil and gas to international markets are more than two decades old. Many sail without proper insurance.
Norvald Kjerstad does not know whether the tankers that lie idle in the remote Russian waters have sufficient insurance. But he fears for safety.
«We see that the AIS is being turned off or manipulated and that ships sail with fake insurance papers,» he says.
