Russia again exports liquefied natural gas to China — despite US sanctions

A sanctioned liquefied natural gas production enterprise in northern Russia has resumed active shipments of products abroad, despite pressure from the West. This is the Arctic LNG-2 project, which has already made its tenth shipment of liquefied natural gas since the end of June.

This is reported by Bloomberg.

This plant was hit by US sanctions back in 2023, but in recent months it has significantly increased exports. Previously, supplies were made either to one of the ports in southern China or to gas storage facilities in the Russian Far East. Now the situation has changed: the gas has begun to flow directly to the Chinese terminal in the city of Beihai. According to the maritime monitoring system, eight batches of Russian LNG, which is formally subject to US sanctions, have already arrived there since August.

These are the first deliveries of Arctic LNG-2 to a foreign port after a long break. Analysts believe that Beijing deliberately chose Beihai as the import point: this port has a limited international presence, which reduces the risk of secondary sanctions. Thus, China seeks to protect its energy sector from possible retaliation from Washington, especially against the backdrop of a new wave of trade tensions between the two countries.

Recall that last summer, this Arctic plant had already made eight export shipments, but in the fall it was forced to stop work. There were several reasons: first, those willing to buy sanctioned gas disappeared due to fears of American pressure, and secondly, ice cover began to accumulate, which complicated logistics. As a result, ships were forced to unload at inland storage facilities in Russia.

Now the situation has changed: demand from China has become more active again, and the United States, despite the aggravation of relations with Beijing, has not yet taken new steps to curb Russian LNG exports.

Recall that the European Union has developed a plan to gradually abandon oil and gas exports from Russia by January 2028.

As reported, the European Union seeks to abandon the purchase of Russian liquefied natural gas earlier than planned within the framework of the 19th package of sanctions against Russia.

By the way, Hungary agreed to the European Union’s plan to stop exporting Russian liquefied natural gas.

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