Germany seizes Russian LNG tankers – media

Germany has assumed control of three liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers that belong to Russian energy major Gazprom, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Thursday citing maritime operator Dynagas LNG.

Gazprom has not confirmed the seizure at the time of writing this article.

According to the report, the firm said that the German government confiscated the charters of its three LNG tankers which were previously fixed to Gazprom’s German subsidiary, Gazprom Germania.

Two of the three ships, the Amur River and the Ob River, had previously been chartered to Gazprom Germania until 2028. The contract for the third tanker, the Clean Energy, was valid until 2026. All three are now effectively under the control of the German government for “an indefinite period of time,” Monaco-based Dynagas said.

Gazprom Germania, which used to operate some of Germany’s largest natural gas storage facilities, was taken over by Berlin several weeks ago as part of Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia. In response, Gazprom stopped supplying gas to the company, which resulted in liquidity problems and jeopardized the work of key gas retailers in Germany and the UK, which work with the unit.

Germany’s energy regulator stepped in and took over the company to protect it from insolvency, renaming it Securing Energy for Europe. In mid-June, reports emerged that Berlin would provide the firm with a loan of €10 billion ($10.4 billion) to help it stay afloat.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section