Russia has used its only icebreaker to bypass US sanctions on liquefied gas exports, says Bloomberg

Russia has relied on a single icebreaker to continue exporting liquefied natural gas from a US-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project throughout the winter.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: Christophe De Margerie, the icebreaking tanker in question, docked at the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 plant on Monday 5 January and is preparing to export its third cargo since 20 December.

This tanker is the sole active vessel in Russia's LNG shadow fleet capable of sailing in frozen areas year-round, Bloomberg notes.

In winter, the ice around the Arctic LNG 2 plant becomes too thick for regular vessels to pass, and last month one of the tankers was forced to suspend an attempt to load LNG because it could not approach the terminal due to ice.

Meanwhile, Christophe De Margerie, an Arc7 build, has already delivered the last two cargoes to the Saam floating storage unit in Russia's western Murmansk Oblast.

Fuel from this storage facility can be loaded onto regular vessels and delivered to China, the only buyer of Russia's sanctioned LNG.

Last winter, Arctic LNG 2 was forced to significantly cut production due to a lack of shipping vessels and overfilled storage.

The only icebreaking vessel enables Arctic LNG 2 to operate at about 25% of its current capacity.

Last month, Russia completed construction of its first domestically built ice-class LNG tanker, Alexey Kosygin, which is heading to the Arctic from the country's far east. This vessel could also help increase exports from the same plant.

Arctic LNG 2, Saam and Christophe De Margerie were sanctioned by the administration of former US president Joe Biden.

Background: In December, a tanker from the shadow fleet that was supposed to transport Russia's liquefied natural gas stopped an attempt to load fuel at the sanctioned export terminal in the Russian Arctic, likely due to ice congestion.

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