Sanctions? What Sanctions? Boston Still Importing LNG From Russia -- January 19, 2108

Refresh your memory regarding this story at this post.

Now this article: Boston, MA, still importing LNG from Russia -- Bloomberg --

The vessel named Gaselys was set to land at a terminal outside Boston on Saturday and changed its course to delay the date of its arrival, according Engie SA, the French utility that owns the cargo. 

The ship turned east last night and listed its destination as Algeciras near Gibraltar, and that entry still remains on a ship-tracking database compiled by Bloomberg.

“The final destination of the cargo did not change,” Damien de Gaulejac, a spokesman for Engie, said by email. “It is still Everett, but the date of delivery has been adjusted, in particular for weather reasons.”

The route seems a bit convoluted. This graphic helps explain it:

Disclaimer: The article refers to a "u-turn" -- obviously the tanker did not make a "u-turn"; it made a full 360-degree turn to get back on course back to the US. The route shown is for demonstration purposes only. The exact location of the "turn" and the exact route could be significantly different. If this is important to you, go to the source.

Don alerted me to the article. My reply:

I find this whole thing ridiculous. 

Sanctions against our "arch" enemy and we import their natural gas even though we have such a glut of natural gas, we are exporting it. 

For all one knows, natural gas being fungible (a commodity), that LNG in the Russian tanker originated in the US. 

Even if it "technically" did not originate in the US, for all "practical reasons" it did. So instead of a short pipeline from the natural gas fields in the Marcellus, Boston is getting their natural gas via this route:

• Pennsylvania Marcellus natural gas to Dominion Energy Cove Point
• tanker from DE Cove Point to Rotterdam (the Netherlands)
• tanker from Rotterdam (the Netherlands) to Novatek PAO's Yamal facility, Russia's second LNG export terminal
• from Yamal, Russia, back to the US, specifically Everett, MA (Boston)

Putin, the Russians, and the French must all be laughing all the way to the bank.

Sanctions? What sanctions?