Four tugboats belonging to a Maersk subsidiary have been seized by Russian authorities in the Russian Far East, the Danish shipping giant announced Wednesday, announcing its full withdrawal from Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.
“On April 25, we were informed that a local court ordered that the tugs cannot leave Russia and also transferred custody of the tugs to a third party,” Maersk said in a statement.
“unsustainable” situation
These four ships, owned by Svitzer, a subsidiary of the Danish flagship, operated under contract around Sakhalin-2, an off-island oil and gas project in the Russian Far East. Efforts to sell off this activity had been successful in mid-April, but the port authorities had opposed this withdrawal by summoning crews to continue operating the tugs before impounding them, according to Maersk.
“Since then, all Svitzer employees in Russia have resigned and Svitzer no longer operates the four tugs,” Maersk said, calling the situation “untenable.” In June, the Kremlin handed over control of the oil and gas project, in which Japan holds shares, to a Russian company.
Source: BFM TV
