Russia seeks to resume LNG exports despite sanctions - media

This was reported by Bloomberg, Ukrinform saw.

According to navigation tracking data compiled by Bloomberg and satellite imagery, a Russian LNG carrier has docked at Novatek's Arctic LNG 2 export plant for the first time since October. The facility was supposed to be a key element for Moscow to achieve its goal of tripling LNG exports by 2030, but it has been idle for months as Russia tries to find buyers willing to violate Western sanctions.

Russia has everything it needs to significantly increase LNG exports as it expands its shadow fleet. After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian gas exports to Europe via pipelines have plunged and more fuel is being transported by tankers.

According to the agency, at least 13 vessels, including those able to navigate icy waters, have been recruited to potentially service the Arctic LNG 2, with some of them changing management companies several times to conceal data on their true owners. Among them is the Iris tanker, one of four Arc4-class tankers currently moored at the Arctic LNG 2 plant, and three other vessels are on idle in the Barents Sea. Two vessels are undergoing repairs in China, and another ship is now by a floating storage facility in the Russian Far East. Two more vessels remain idle in the Gulf of Finland.

Eight gas shipments were exported from the Arctic LNG 2 between August and October 2024, but they never made it to foreign shores. Instead, that gas was offloaded to two Russian storage facilities in the Barents Sea and the Far East. Large-scale production stopped in October after ice formed around the storage facility, making transportation by traditional vessels challenging. According to Igor Tonkovidov, CEO Sovcomflot, Russia’s first domestically produced ice-class LNG tanker could be put into operation in the second half of this year if it passes the remaining trials.

According to traders familiar with the Arctic LNG 2 project, Russian officials have been trying to sell LNG, holding meetings with potential buyers in India and China over the past year, but it remains unclear whether any buyers have been found.

China seems like the most likely candidate, but given the steady decline in Chinese demand over the past eight months, this will be a difficult task, believes Malte Humpert of the American Arctic Institute. The fact that more than a million cubic meters of LNG loaded last year remain unsold and remains in floating storage does not bode well for new attempts to sell additional volumes this summer.

However, traders are on a watch as to whether the U.S. or the EU will tighten sanctions on the facility after exports resume.

The time has come to increase pressure on Russia’s energy revenues, said Jeffrey Pyatt, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State who helped draft sanctions against Arctic LNG 2 during the Biden administration. European leaders have expressed a new determination to cut all imports of Russian gas, making it even more important for the United States to continue our pressure on Novatek, he added.

As Ukrinform reported, the European Union intends to put on full halt all Russian hydrocarbon imports by 2027.

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