Why are British companies still involved in the transport and sale of Russian energy?

The Stop Seapeak Coalition is stepping up its campaign to block a key income stream for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

JUNE 24, 2025

Seapeak Maritime Glasgow Ltd is shipping $5.5 billion of Russian Liquefied Natural Gas (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 megawatt-hour, 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 Ukraine Solidarity Campaign 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. Its actions have included three pickets of Seapeaks Clydeside HQ. 

So far, the UK government has ignored the campaign, despite it receiving significant support within the Scottish Parliament. 20 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, Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and DUP MPs. 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 be stopped only if they entered British waters or ports, which of course they will never do.

The EU picture is (slightly) more optimistic. 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.  The grassroots 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 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.”  

Write to your MP and join the campaign to back Ukraine, help save the planet by banning Russian LNG. Join the Stop Seapeak Coalition at its stall on 28th June at the Edinburgh Climate Change Festival  

Image: Destructions in Kyiv after Russian attack. Attribution:  Dsns.gov.ua Source: Рятувальники продовжують аварійно-відновлювальні роботи у Святошинському районі міста. Author: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.