Chinese LNG Ship Skirting US Curbs Continues to Fake Location
(Bloomberg) -- A liquefied natural gas tanker that appears to be assisting a Russian export project circumvent US sanctions is still faking its location, according to satellite images analyzed by Bloomberg News.
The CCH Gas vessel, which has a registered owner with an address in Hong Kong, is signaling that it has been idling off the eastern coast of Malaysia for the last week. However, satellite images taken by Copernicus Sentinel-2 between Oct. 28 and Nov. 2 show that the ship isn’t currently in that location.
Satellite images from earlier in October showed CCH Gas alongside a tanker that ship-tracking data showed was the Perle, a vessel carrying LNG fuel from Russia’s Portovaya plant, which was blacklisted by the US in January. The position was typical of a ship-to-ship transfer, and suggests CCH gas was in the process of receiving sanctioned LNG cargo.
It isn’t clear where CCH Gas is currently located or where it is heading. A vessel faking its location, a practice known as spoofing, is a common feature of “dark fleet” ships seeking to avoid detection by western authorities.
Russia has stepped up efforts to find buyers for its gas, even as Western nations seek to curb Moscow’s LNG exports. Another US-sanctioned plant, Arctic LNG 2, started delivering the blacklisted fuel to China in late August.
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