Data shows that Russia's LNG imports will increase by 9.9% during the first half of 2026.

The preliminary LSEG data showed that Russia's liquefied gas exports grew 9.9% - in the first half of this year - to 16.6 million metric tonnes, boosted mainly by the growing supply resulting from the new Arctic LNG 2 project.

Due to seasonal maintenance, exports in June fell by 1.5% compared to a year ago and 37% compared to May, to 2.03 million tons. This is due to the Asia-oriented Sakhalin-2 facility. According to LSEG ship tracking data, Sakhalin-2 is controlled by Russian gas?company Gazprom and has suspended LNG exports as of June 17 due to planned maintenance.

According to data, the supplies from Arctic LNG 2?reach around 1.6 millions tons in the first six months of this year.

The project started in December 2023, but due to U.S. Sanctions over the Ukraine War only managed to deliver one cargo to Chinese end-users in August last year.

The data also revealed that Russian LNG exports into Europe from January to June increased by 14% on an annual basis to 9 million tonnes. In just June, they fell to 1.14 million tonnes from 1.25 millions tons a year ago. In early this year, EU countries gave their final approval for a ban on Russian gas imports by late 2027.

The total?exports of Novatek's Yamal LNG Plant in the period January to June decreased 2% on an annual basis?to 9.4 million tons.

Sakhalin-2 exports 5.1 million tonnes?of LNG during the first half of the year. This is a slight increase from the 5?million tones exported in the same time period last year. Gazprom delivered an LNG cargo to China in April from its Portovaya LNG plant on the Baltic Sea. This was the second LNG shipment since sanctions were placed on the plant. (Reporting and Editing by Emelia Matarise Sithole)

(source: Reuters)