MOSCOW, – Russia’s exports of liquefied natural gas in January-July this year declined by 4.5 per cent from a year earlier to 17.1 million metric tons, LSEG preliminary data showed on Friday, reflecting the impact of international sanctions over Ukraine. The United States has imposed sanctions on companies and vessels linked to Russia’s new Arctic LNG 2 plant because of the conflict in Ukraine, effectively freezing the project because of the difficulty for Moscow in finding buyers.
In July, Russia’s LNG exports were down by 5%, year-on-year, at 1.9 million tons, and were 11.2 per cent lower than in June this year, according to LSEG data.
Russian LNG exports to Europe in January-July declined by 14.7 per cent year-on-year to 8.7 million tons, while supplies in July in this direction fell by 20.6 per cent to 850,000 tons.
Novatek’s Yamal LNG plant cut total exports in July by 10.4 per cent year-on-year to 1.29 million tons. In July, deliveries from the plant were at their lowest since December 2023. Since the beginning of the year, exports from Yamal LNG have decreased by 1.8 per cent to 11 million tons year-on-year.
In July, two shipments were recorded from the Arctic LNG 2 project. According to LSEG, the tankers remain at sea with a load of 0.14 million tons. Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, increased exports to 590,000 tons in July from 280,000 tons a year ago.
Exports from the project rose to 5.6 million tons year-to-date from 5.2 million in January-July 2024.
