Tanker With Russian Gas Still Set for Boston After Weather Delay
Tanker With Russian Gas Still Set for Boston After Weather Delay
(Bloomberg) -- The liquefied natural gas tanker headed to the U.S. with a controversial cargo is due to resume its journey after making a U-turn in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean last night.
The vessel named Gaselys was set to land at a terminal outside Boston on Saturday and changed its course to delay the date of its arrival, according Engie SA, the French utility that owns the cargo.
The ship turned east last night and listed its destination as Algeciras near Gibraltar, and that entry still remains on a ship-tracking database compiled by Bloomberg.
“The final destination of the cargo did not change,” Damien de Gaulejac, a spokesman for Engie, said by email. “It is still Everett, but the date of delivery has been adjusted, in particular for weather reasons.”
The vessel is carrying a cargo from storage tanks at a terminal near London, which earlier received the first fuel from the $27 billion Yamal LNG plant in Russia’s icy north. It’s a closely-watched shipment because some of the gas came from the project that’s under financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. in 2014 after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine’s Crimea.
The shipment was arranged during a polar cold snap that gripped the U.S. northeast earlier this month, sending prices to records.
Engie’s North American unit bought the spot cargo for delivery to the U.S. from Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. to supplement its contracted volumes from Trinidad and Tobago into its Everett terminal near Boston, it said last week.
The Yamal LNG project, co-owned by Russia’s Novatek PJSC, Total SA, China Natural Petroleum Corp. and China’s Silk Road Fund, started production in December despite U.S. financial sanctions imposed in 2014 because of Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. It plans to deliver 14 spot cargoes by April, when long-term contracts kick in.
To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in London at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net, Mathew Carr in London at m.carr@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net, Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Andrew Reierson
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