New Busan ship manager takes over ice-class LNG carriers once listed by the EU

A newly founded Busan ship manager, IOB, has begun operating four 174,000 cubic metre Arc4 LNG carriers, gCaptain and Splash247 report. The North Moon, North Light, North Ocean and North Valley were built by Hanwha Ocean in 2024 and 2025 for Mitsui OSK Lines under a charter deal with a unit of Russia's Novatek. The EU sanctioned the first three in May 2025 over Russian LNG trades, then delisted them about two months later after MOL assured it they would stop carrying Russian energy. According to shipping databases cited by gCaptain, the ships' ownership and management have since moved into a structure linking Novatek with IOB, which plans to add three to six Arc7 carriers next year.

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