The crayon marks on the wall of the sparsely furnished apartment hint at it being a conventional family home. But the single sofa, pink plastic chair and child¡¯s bike obscure something else: a vital component in Russian efforts to circumvent U.S. energy sanctions. And it¡¯s sitting 90 miles southeast of the Indian city of Mumbai.
Since June, the apartment has been the registered address of Ocean Speedstar Solutions. The Mumbai-incorporated company provides essential support to a Russian shadow fleet of tankers exporting liquefied natural gas from a flagship facility above the Arctic circle. On occasion, some of the vessels have disguised their location as they play a high-stakes version of hide-and-seek with U.S. authorities.
The apartment is lived in by Nikhil Ganesh Ghorpade, a photojournalist without any previous connection to the energy industry. He says he was persuaded by a friend to register his name and home address on behalf of the company and is listed by an official Indian registry as Ocean Speedstar¡¯s sole director. By agreeing, he unwittingly joined a complex network stretching from Dubai to India and China which is being used to create a shadow fleet of gas carriers to ferry the fuel from Russia¡¯s $21 billion Arctic LNG 2 facility.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.