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Greece is blocking a new round of EU sanctions against Russian gas to protect Dynagas, the shipping company belonging to Greek tycoon George Prokopiou that has specialised in transporting Russian cargoes from a liquefied natural gas plant in the Arctic region.
Athens’ ambassador to the EU told fellow national envoys on Wednesday that the planned sanctions, which would ban the transport of Russian LNG to third countries, would “ruin” Dynagas, according to two people briefed on his remarks.
Two more people confirmed that the ambassador had cited Dynagas as the reason that Greece could not support the sanctions, which require unanimous support to proceed.
Dynagas operates 27 gas tankers, according to Equasis, a maritime data portal. These include a third of the fleet of Arc7 tankers, which are built robustly to handle the icy Arctic waters close to Yamal LNG’s plant.
The Greek objection has held up approval of the EU’s 21st package of sanctions against Russia for a week, leaving other measures such as sanctions against more banks, cryptocurrency networks and military-industrial companies in limbo.
The package also includes a mechanism to lower the price of the “cap” on Russian crude above which companies cannot legally purchase and transport it.
Ambassadors on Wednesday evening were forced to agree to an emergency week-long extension of the existing price of $44.10 a barrel to buy more time for negotiations. Without a decision the price would have jumped significantly due to the increase in global prices caused by the Iran war, earning Moscow billions in additional revenue.
The extension was also designed to study the economic and technical implications of the sanctions, including the LNG transport ban, according to an EU official briefed on the decision.
Other EU diplomats argue that all member states have seen their companies lose business as a result of the sanctions, in order to inflict economic pain on Moscow.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, said on Monday that she regretted that the EU had not reached an agreement on the 21st package. “Of course, member states have various reasons [to oppose it],” she said.
“Our aim is to have an agreement. If we don’t have an agreement, then we start to work on Plan B,” Kallas added, in reference to the oil price cap.
Prokopiou owns both Dynagas and Dynacom, the oil tanker business that has made at least $915mn from trading Russian crude oil in the past three years — more than any other Greek shipping company.
Dynacom was one of the first to risk sending tankers through the Strait of Hormuz during the early weeks of the US-Israel conflict with Iran.
Dynagas has transported more than 10mn tonnes of Russian LNG since the start of 2025 on 11 vessels, according to FT calculations using data from Kpler, a data and analytics company. The FT identified 11 Dynagas ships that completed 144 voyages in that time.
Its fleet of Arc7 ships has been specifically built to serve Yamal, which sits on Russia’s north coast in the Arctic Circle.
Greece argued that Dynagas would not be able to use the vessels elsewhere and would be forced to sell the vessels to non-western actors, according to those briefed on the discussions. The highly specialised ships are among the most complex to build and cost about $300mn.
The remainder of the Arc7 fleet is operated by Seapeak, which is owned by the New York-headquartered investment firm Stonepeak, and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines, with one owned by Russia’s Sovcomflot.
The Greek government and Dynagas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
