Seapeak Maritime Ltd manages seven ‘shadow tankers’ which ferry gas from Russia to the rest of the world, helping to bankroll Putin’s war on Ukraine.
A Seapeak tanker which ships gas from Russia to Europe(Image: Liam McBurney/PA Wire)
A Glasgow-based shipping firm linked to Russia’s fleet of “shadow tankers” could have contributed £127million to the Kremlin war machine, it is claimed.
Seapeak Maritime Ltd manages seven tankers which ferry liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Siberia to the rest of the world.
Pro-Ukraine campaigners have long urged UK ministers to shut the firm’s activities which it’s feared are bankrolling Russian president Vladimir Putin’s brutal three-year assault on its neighbour.
Now, anti-Russian fossil fuels group Razom We Stand has issued a new report estimating the shipping company may have paid £127million in corporate taxes to Russian federal and state governments last year for its LNG cargoes.
That would be enough to cover the cost of 2700 Iranian Shahed drones or 45 Iskander-M type missiles which Russia’s war machine has repeatedly used to terrorise and massacre Ukrainian civilians.
Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a brutal assault on Ukraine in 2022(Image: Getty)
Svitlana Romanko, executive director of Razom We Stand, said: “It is outrageous that a UK-registered company like Seapeak has played such a central role in financing Putin’s war machine, helping generate over £127million in taxes for the Russian state last year alone.
“That money is enough to pay for a couple thousand drones or dozens of Iskander missiles – weapons Russians use to kill civilians in Ukraine on a daily basis.
“While Ukrainian families are picking up the pieces under the rubble of Russian missile strikes, a British company is quietly still profiting from Russia’s fossil fuels.
“British firms must not be allowed to profit from bloodstained gas – this research proves Seapeak’s deep entanglement in Russia’s war economy.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 with the LNG trade crucial in bringing billions into the Kremlin to pay for Putin’s “special military operation” which has killed thousands of people.
A residential building in Poltava, Ukraine, pictured on July 4 after Russian drone strikes(Image: Mykola Yeremenko/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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Seapeak Maritime, based on Elliot Street in Glasgow, near the Clyde, operates tankers such as the Yakov Gakkel, which exports Russian gas from Yamal in Siberia – estimated to hold a quarter of the world’s gas reserves – to Europe.
We previously told how US-based billionaire investor Michael Dorrell is behind Seapeak. The Australian took overall control it in 2023 following it’s acquisition by Stonepeak, the £100billion infrastructure investment giant he is founder and CEO of.
Its tankers are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of an estimated 600 vessels shipping oil and gas around the world while evading western sanctions. Seapeak’s work is technically legal but critics want the UK Government to close what it says is a sanctions loophole.
Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer – who was sanctioned by Russia for his work in solidarity with Ukraine – said: “It’s appalling that the UK Labour government refuses to shut Seapeak down. People in Glasgow are horrified when they learn a firm based here plays such a key role in keeping Russia’s war economy going.”
Peter Cooper, secretary of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign in Scotland, said: “Glasgow-based company Seapeak’s shipping of £3billion worth of Russian LNG, at an annual £45m profit for its US owners, is being paid for by the death and injury of thousands of Ukrainian civilians.”
Ukrainian officials inspect a Russian Shahed drone shot down by Ukraine’s air defense forces on April 30.(Image: Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP) (Photo by IVAN SAMOILOV/AFP via Getty Image)
Activists will hold a peaceful protest outside Seapeak’s Clydeside offices this week, joined by campaigners in London and Vancouver, Canada, where the firm’s global HQ is based.
We previously told of claims Russia had planted FSB spies on Seapeak’s super tankers, with Putin’s operatives allegedly using intimidation to remove western crew.
Last year, we also revealed how Russian “spy ships” with armed masked men were operating in the North Sea near the Scottish coast amid claims of attempted sabotage the UK’s network of underwater internet cables. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the UK responded in the same year by banning all ships with any Russian connection from entering UK ports. However, UK firms are not banned from transporting Russian gas to other countries.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “Wecontinue to explore all options for constraining Russian revenue further, including by targeting Russian LNG production and trade.”
Seapeak Maritime was approached for comment.