Russia’s largest private natural gas producer Novatek received notice from TC LNG Shipping that is has been taken off the US blacklist.
In its statement, Novatek said that Yamal LNG received a notification from TC LNG Shipping, a joint-venture between Teekay LNG and China LNG Shipping owning the Arc7 ice-class tankers, that joint-venture is no longer considered a “Blocked Person” under the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control rules.
Teekay LNG informed in its statement that COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation has completed an ownership restructuring on arms-length terms which has resulted in Teekay LNG’s joint venture partner, China LNG Shipping, no longer being classified as a “Blocked Person” under OFAC rules.
Accordingly, Teekay LNG’s 50/50 joint venture with China LNG, which owns four on-the-water ARC7 LNG carriers and two ARC7 LNG carrier newbuildings, is also no longer classified as a “Blocked Person”.
The four existing ARC7 LNG carriers owned by the joint venture, Eduard Toll, Rudolf Samoylovich, Nikolay Yevgenov, and Vladimir Voronin, are continuing to operate under their long-term contracts transporting gas from the Yamal LNG project.
The remaining two ARC7 LNG carrier newbuildings are expected to deliver in the fourth quarter of 2019.