Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 export facility, which is sanctioned by the United States, is coming back to life after a year of no activity and is looking for buyers in Asia.
At least four tankers carrying LNG from Russia’s flagship Arctic project have departed in recent days from the export facility via the Northern Route to Asia, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed on Monday.
The latest development signals that Russia is trying – again – to sell the LNG from the sanctioned project led by Russian firm Novatek, and possibly test the resolve of the U.S. sanctions against Russian energy projects and exports amid the latest push by U.S. President Donald Trump to help negotiate peace in Ukraine.
The U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2, which was billed as Russia’s flagship LNG project, have effectively frozen the start-up of the export facility in the Gydan Peninsula.
The project has come under intensifying sanctions from the United States, which have put off any buyers that were previously considering buying cargoes from Arctic LNG 2.
In one piece of anecdotal evidence, a sanctioned LNG carrier, which had loaded liquefied natural gas in the Arctic in August 2024, traveled for four months around northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean, along China’s east coast, and north to Russia’s Far East, without finding a buyer for the cargo.
This year, Russia is seeking again to find buyers for its sanctioned LNG supply from the Arctic project.
LNG tankers Voskhod and Iris, both blacklisted by the U.S., have loaded LNG from Arctic LNG 2 in recent weeks.They are now en route to Asia, per the ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Last year, Russia started shipping LNG from its flagship Arctic LNG 2 project—but not to customers. The shipments were made from the Arctic project to floating storage units either in Russia or in European waters, as potential customers were unwilling to buy the sanctioned LNG.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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