The Christophe de Margerie ice-class LNG tanker docked in the Russian Arctic port of Sabetta in 2017
Russian LNG scrambling to emulate oil’s success
A sanctions-defying ‘shadow fleet’ is being assembled, but it remains unclear where Russia will sell the liquefied gas while Arctic LNG 2 remains strangled by sanctions
Russia has largely been able to circumvent Western sanctions on its crude exports, with flows moving away from their former customers in Europe and towards new markets in China and India. At the same time, product flows have also diverted to fresh buyers, including the Middle East and Latin America. But Moscow has so far struggled to replicate that success with its LNG exports. Shipments from Yamal continue to go to or via Europe, and the bloc’s imports of Russian LNG even increased by 11% year-on-year in the first half of 2024, while LNG from Sakhalin is still dispatched to buyers in East Asia. A newer development, Arctic LNG 2, faced additional Western sanctions and restrictions, delaying
Also in this section
17 January 2025
Supply glut or supply deficit are both plausible outlooks, with tariffs and sanctions among the key risks that could swing the pendulum
17 January 2025
European Commission is on its way to meeting clean energy goals, but energy security concerns and higher costs may give it second thoughts
17 January 2025
The CEO of QatarEnergy has highlighted the potential impact a new EU directive could have on energy exports to the continent
16 January 2025
The government’s resource nationalism is aggravating the NOC’s debt position and could yet worsen if also tasked with the decarbonisation shift
