Four liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers carrying cargoes from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 plant, sanctioned over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, are headed east toward Asia, according to ship tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.
The Christophe De Margerie tanker is travelling along the Northern Sea Route after loading at Arctic LNG 2 on August 9, according to Kpler data. The tanker is currently off the northeast coast of Russia, the data showed.
LNG tankers Voskhod and Zarya, which loaded on July 16 and 29 respectively and had been idling near Arctic LNG 2, started traveling eastward on August 15, the data showed.
Meanwhile, the Iris tanker which headed west after loading at the Arctic LNG 2 project on June 26 made a U-turn in early July and is now also sailing east.
The four LNG tankers are subject to U.S. sanctions as part of a broader goal to curb Russia’s oil and gas revenues. Companies can face fines or penalties for doing business or trade with sanctioned entities.
Reuters previously could not find contact information for the registered owners and ship or commercial managers for the four tankers when they loaded the cargoes from the Arctic LNG 2 project this year.
Arctic LNG 2, which is 60%-owned by Russia’s Novatek, was set to become one of the country’s largest LNG plants, with eventual output of 19.8 million metric tons per year. But its prospects have been clouded by the sanctions and it has struggled to sell LNG from the project.
Last year, the project loaded eight cargoes onto several sanctioned LNG vessels, according to Kpler data, with some vessels discharging the fuel at two storage facilities. One is near the Arctic port of Murmansk, and the other is in Russia’s Pacific peninsular of Kamchatka in the east.
(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sonali Paul)