Berlin/London, August 24, 2026
- Urgewald welcomes Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s support for Ukraine during his Kyiv visit but calls for further UK action against Russian Arctic LNG.
- Six Arc7 tankers linked to Seapeak’s Glasgow operations delivered 58 cargoes and 4.25 million tonnes of Yamal LNG to EU ports between January and July 2026, with an indicative gross value of £2.18 billion (€2.54 billion).
- The vessels carried around 39% of all EU-bound Yamal LNG, placing a UK-linked company at the centre of the project’s specialised shipping network.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s visit to Kyiv comes as new Urgewald analysis of Kpler data reveals the continuing role of UK-linked shipping in Russia’s Arctic LNG trade.
Burnham is visiting Ukraine on Independence Day and has announced further British support for Ukraine’s long-range missile capabilities. Urgewald welcomed the commitment but urged the Government to make greater use of the economic pressure available against Russia’s Arctic energy sector.
Six Arc7 tankers linked to Seapeak’s Glasgow operations completed 62 Yamal LNG deliveries reaching their final destinations worldwide between January and July 2026. Of these, 58 cargoes and 4,249,512 tonnes were delivered to EU ports. Applying Urgewald’s monthly TTF benchmark methodology gives these EU-bound cargoes an indicative gross value of £2.18 billion (€2.54 billion).
The six vessels accounted for around 39% of the 149 Yamal LNG cargoes delivered to EU ports during the period. Across the project, EU ports received 92% of all Yamal LNG shipments reaching their final destination between January and July.
Arc7 tankers are specially designed to transport LNG through Arctic sea ice. Yamal LNG depends on this small fleet to maintain exports during winter, when conventional LNG carriers cannot operate independently in the Gulf of Ob.
Seapeak lists a 50% ownership interest in each of the six vessels and describes Glasgow as the centre of its global gas operations. Previous Urgewald analysis found that no other company carried a larger share of Yamal LNG than Seapeak in 2025.
Alexander Kirk, Sanctions Campaigner at Urgewald, said:
“We welcome Andy Burnham’s clear support for Ukraine and the new commitments announced in Kyiv. Britain can go further by targeting the Arctic supply chains still generating billions for Russia.
“The possibility of Ukraine turning to ‘kinetic sanctions’ against Yamal LNG is moving beyond specialist circles. The UK holds many of the cards. It can sanction the small Arc7 fleet and restrict the UK-linked maritime services that help keep these vessels operating.
“Six ships linked to Seapeak’s Glasgow operations carried Russian LNG worth around £2.2 billion to EU ports in only seven months. Peaceful economic sanctions are available now. If governments want to constrain Russian revenues and reduce the human, environmental and energy risks of military escalation, they should use them.”
Urgewald is calling on the UK Government to sanction the Arc7 tanker fleet and work with European partners to restrict the financial, maritime and maintenance services supporting Yamal LNG.
More information on Urgewald’s work to close the remaining sanctions gaps is available online.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Seapeak and the Arc7 fleet
The six Seapeak-linked Arc7 vessels identified in the dataset are:
- Eduard Toll, IMO 9750696
- Georgiy Ushakov, IMO 9750749
- Nikolay Yevgenov, IMO 9750725
- Rudolf Samoylovich, IMO 9750713
- Vladimir Voronin, IMO 9750737
- Yakov Gakkel, IMO 9750672
Seapeak’s fleet information lists all six vessels and records a 50% ownership interest in each.
Data and delivery dates
The analysis is based on cargo-level Kpler data tracking LNG shipments from the Yamal LNG project. Destinations are assigned using the final recorded discharge port. January to July totals include cargoes reaching their final destinations by 31 July 2026.
During this period, Seapeak-linked vessels completed 62 deliveries worldwide. Four were delivered to China or South Korea, leaving 58 cargoes and 4,249,512 tonnes delivered to EU ports.
Value methodology
The value estimate refers only to Yamal LNG volumes delivered to EU ports. It uses monthly TTF front-month benchmarks because contract-level prices are not publicly available.
The assumptions are:
- January: €35.00/MWh
- February: €35.00/MWh
- March: €52.87/MWh
- April: €45.21/MWh
- May: €47.32/MWh
- June: €44.94/MWh
- July: €53.99/MWh
Volumes are converted using 13.7 MWh per tonne of LNG. The calculation is monthly EU-delivered tonnes multiplied by 13.7 MWh per tonne, multiplied by the relevant monthly TTF benchmark.
January to June prices are based on the simple average of daily closing prices from Investing.com’s Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures historical data. The July input uses the €53.99/MWh ICE front-month monthly average reported by AleaSoft Energy Forecasting.
This produces an indicative gross value of €2,542,626,494.
Using the European Central Bank reference rate of €1 to £0.8567 on 21 August 2026 gives £2,178,268,117. This is rounded to £2.18 billion in the release and £2.2 billion in the headline.
These figures estimate the indicative gross value of the LNG carried to EU ports. They are not estimates of Seapeak’s freight income, corporate revenue or profit. They exclude contract discounts, transport costs, regasification fees and subsequent resale within Europe.
The underlying dataset can be shared with journalists on request but should not be published without Urgewald’s permission.
For the wider January to July Yamal LNG figures and methodology, see Urgewald’s seven-month analysis.
