Data shows that Gazprom has delivered the first LNG cargo to China after sanctions from Portovaya.
LSEG data revealed on Monday that Russian energy giant Gazprom delivered a cargo of liquefied gas from the Portovaya LNG facility to China. This was the first shipment since January when the United States imposed sanctions against the project.
LSEG's ship tracking data revealed that the gas carrier Valera (formerly Velikiy Novgorod) transported the cargo from the Baltic Sea plant to the Beihai terminal for LNG.
Novatek, the largest LNG producer in Russia, uses the same loading port in China to load cargoes from Arctic LNG 2.
Data showed that the tanker arrived in Tieshan (south China) on November 28 after being loaded at Portovaya.
Martin Senior, the head of pricing for Argus, stated that exports to China from Portovaya during the winter months could be limited to one cargo per month, due to the small size of the terminal and the lack of carriers connected to the terminal.
He said that the exports were lower than expected from Arctic LNG 2. The terminal had a larger capacity and more carriers, which allowed it to export three cargoes per month despite a higher ice accumulation compared to Portovaya.
In September 2022, the small-scale Portovaya LNG Plant, with a production capability of 1.5 million tonnes of LNG annually, began operations.
In February of this year, exports were suspended following the introduction by the U.S. of sanctions against Ukraine in order to disrupt Russia's production and exporting LNG as well as reduce Russia's revenue.
In its early days, Portovaya's cargoes were mainly delivered to Turkey and Greece. The supply markets were then expanded to include China, Spain, and Italy.
Prior to the sanctions, this plant shipped two cargoes per month in average during the winter. Since March 2025, it has only sent one cargo per month into the Russian exclave in western Russia of Kaliningrad. Reporting by Marwa Rashed in London, with additional reporting from Bernadette and Louise Heavens.
(source: Reuters)
