Seapeak Maritime Glasgow Ltd is shipping $5.5 billion of Russian LNG each year, in its six ice-breaking LNG tankers, from the Yamal gas field in the Russian Siberian Arctic to third countries. Russian LNG exports are a major source of:
- Finance for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Their value equals the total value of UK economic and military aid to Ukraine (£15.5 bn).
- Global heating. Yamal contains 20% of known global gas reserves
- Arctic heating (up 5 degrees in 20 years). This in turn releases methane, an even more lethal greenhouse gas, from the melting permafrost. LNG produces 33% more CO2 than coal per mWh, including the processes of extraction, liquefication, and shipping.
- Destruction of the herding way of life of the Nenets people, forcing its young men to “volunteer” for the Russian army to fight in Ukraine, a double whammy.
The Stop Seapeak Coalition has been recently set up by USC Scotland together with allies in the Scottish University Ukrainian student movement, trade unions, and the environmental movement. In April Unison Scottish Council passed a motion opposing Russian LNG shipping.Together with the London-based USC, the Stop Seapeak Coalition is also campaigning for the UK government to sanction the insurance of these vessels by City firms, North Standard and Skud.
So far the UK government has ignored the campaign, despite it receiving significant support within the Scottish Parliament. Twenty MSPs signed a Members’ Business Motion. In the UK Parliament 34 MPs have so far signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by Chris Law MP (SNP) calling for sanctions on Russian LNG. Signatories include SNP, Green Party (England and Wales), John McDonnell MP, and MPs from the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and DUP. Get in touch with your MP and get them to sign the EDM.
The government has made a great play of sanctioning the Russian “shadow fleet” of rust-bucket oil tankers. These sanctions have zero consequences as the tankers would only be stopped if they entered British waters or ports, which of course they will never do.
According to a BBC report ‘Russia has made more than three times as much money by exporting hydrocarbons than Ukraine has received in aid allocated by its allies.’
For the first time, under pressure, the European Commission has announced a requirement on EU companies to reveal their contracts for Russian LNG, a ban on Russian LNG “spot contracts” from the end of 2025, and on long term contracts from the end of 2027. These measures are welcome. But aside from their leisurely pace of implementation, over two and a half years, they may well be subject to legal challenge, delaying matters even further, and opposition from France and Belgium.
Meanwhile the war rages on in Ukraine. This “grass-roots” campaign for LNG sanctions is more necessary than ever. There would have been no EU Russian LNG sanctions of any kind without the campaign led by our Belgian colleagues in the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU).
As Svitlana Romanko of Ukrainian environmental NGO Razom We Stand, remarks “What’s missing? Political courage”. Let’s turn up the pressure on the British government and its so far docile Labour MPs to show some backbone. The Stop Seapeak Coalition and a Ukrainian choir will be at the Edinburgh Climate Change Festival on 28 June
Solidarity with Ukraine means stopping these blatant sanctions busting. Read more at the Stop Seapeak Coalition and join the protests on 9 July in Glasgow, London, Copenhagen and Vancouver where Seapeak and its insurers have offices.
You can read more about why Seapeak merits targeting in this report from Razom We Stand
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Stop Seapeak’s sanction busting protests
WEDNESDAY 9 JULY, 12noon
GLASGOW protest at Seapeak headquarters in Elliott Street
LONDON protest at Seapeak’s insurers Skuld at “the Gherkin“, 30 St Mary’s Axe, EC3A 8EP
NB Fearured image: Blue banner with yellow writing reading Seapeak stop Russian LNG and placard reading Russian LNG funds Putin’s war