The second known tanker to carry Russian Arctic LNG in China
Ship-tracking data revealed that another tanker carrying liquefied gas from Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 Project docked at a Chinese port days after Russian president Vladimir Putin met China’s leader Xi Jinping.
The LSEG data showed that the Russian LNG tanker Voskhod was anchored in the port Tieshan, in China's southwest province of Guangxi.
LSEG data revealed that the Russian flagged LNG tanker with a cargo of 150 000 cubic metres was loaded at Arctic LNG 2 in Gydan, northern Siberia, on July 19.
The cargo is the third from the project sanctioned to dock in China, after the tanker Arctic Mulan docked at the Beihai LNG Terminal in late August. Arctic LNG's cargo on the Arctic Mulan is the first to reach a final user since its start-up last year.
The port did not respond to telephone calls and it was unclear if LNG had been discharged.
Arctic Project began production in December of 2023. However, the project is running behind schedule due to a shortage of ice class gas carriers, and Western sanctions because of Russia's conflict in Ukraine.
The cargo arrived days after Putin’s high-profile visit to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit and a military display to celebrate the end to World War Two.
Arctic LNG 2, owned by Novatek and 60% of its shares, was to be one of Russia's biggest LNG plants with a target production of 19,8 million metric tonnes per year. But sanctions have hampered the project's prospects.
Kpler data show that eight cargoes from Arctic LNG 2 were loaded onto sanctioned LNG ships last year. Four of these were discharged into Koryak FSU.
Six cargoes from the project have been loaded this year. Some tankers sanctioned are travelling east along Northern Sea Route.
According to LSEG, two tankers are currently berthed in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's far east. A third is in the South China Sea, between Taiwan and Hainan Island. (Lewis Jackson, Beijing, contributed additional reporting; Tom Hogue and Clarence Fernandez edited the story.)
(source: Reuters)
