Sanctioned tanker to reach Russian LNG facility in Arctic

A sanctioned LNG carrier is heading to the Arctic LNG 2 facility to load what would be the fourth cargo of liquefied gas from Russia’s newest LNG facility.

Bloomberg cited ship tracking data as showing Everest Energy moving to the facility on Siberia’s Gydan Peninsula. The vessel was subject to US sanctions last year, as was the Arctic LNG 2 facility.

Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that Novatek was transporting LNG from its second Arctic facility to floating storage due to sanctions. Bloomberg said in its report that Everest Energy last month picked up an LNG cargo from Arctic LNG 2 and delivered it to a floating storage facility in Murmansk.

Arctic LNG 2 has been seen as key to Russia’s efforts to increase its global LNG market share from 8% to 20% by 2030-2035. Its planned annual capacity was 19.8 million tons of liquefied gas and 1.6 million tons of stable condensate.

But Novatek’s project has come under intense sanctions from the United States, which have put off all buyers who were previously considering buying cargo from Arctic LNG 2.

The energy project has already seen months of delays after initial US sanctions in November 2023 changed the company’s plans to start production and export timelines. Last month, news broke that the expansion had been pushed back to 2028.

However, Russia has begun amassing a shadow fleet of tankers to ship its LNG in vessel ownership transfers similar to moves Moscow began after its invasion of Ukraine to create a shadow fleet to export oil and products to the face of Western sanctions. Everest Energy and the other ships that took cargo from Arctic LNG 2 are also hiding their destinations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that the country will continue to work to expand its global LNG presence. “We will do this despite whatever difficulties they try to create for us,” Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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