Suspicious tanker near Swedish waters had visited Klaipėda

NS Concord docked at the Lithuanian port only once, but the visit was one to remember.

Three days in Klaipėda

“When NS Concord docked at Klaipėda Port, the ship was, if you will, brand new,” Dovilė Skabickaitė, spokeswoman for the Klaipėda State Seaport Authority, tells DELFI.

NS Concord was built and put into operation in 2005. On 13 September of that same year, she docked at Klaipėda Port, at the quay used by Klaipėdos Nafta (Klaipėda Oil), a company which is now in charge of Lithuania’s key energy project, the LNG Terminal.

Over the three subsequent days, the 244-metre tanker was loaded with 60 thousand tons of oil products. It was a record-setting cargo for that year.

That was the only time that NS Concord sailed into Klaipėda. Just like today, the ship was sailing under the Liberian flag.

The ship that has caught the Swedes’ attention is owned by the Russian company Novoship, which, in turn, belongs to Sovkonflot. The latter company has links to people in the close circles of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

Sovkonflot is one of the biggest oil transportation companies in the world. Its president Sergey Frank is a former minister of transport of Russia, while his son is married to a daughter of one of Putin’s close friends, Genady Timchenko. The latter is linked to another oil company, Gunvor, which was one of the first to be included in the Western sanctions list over Russia’s policies in Ukraine.