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
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