Russian shadow fleet tankers begin arriving in China – Reuters

According to the agency, the Russian LNG tanker Voskhod was anchored near an LNG terminal in the port of Tieshan, in the southwestern Guangxi province of China. The tanker, sailing under the Russian flag with a cargo of 150,000 cubic meters of LNG, had been loaded at the Arctic LNG 2 plant in Gydan, northern Siberia, on July 19.

This is the second shipment from the sanctioned project delivered to China, after the Arctic Mulan tanker — also under sanctions — arrived at the Beihai LNG terminal at the end of August.

Production under the Arctic project began in December 2023. However, gas deliveries have been lagging behind schedule due to a shortage of ice-class tankers and Western sanctions.

Arctic LNG 2, 60% of which is owned by the Russian company Novatek, was intended to become one of the country’s largest LNG plants with a target capacity of 19.8 million tons per year. But sanctions have clouded its prospects.

It is noted that at present, two more tankers carrying Russian gas are moored on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, while a third is located in the South China Sea between Taiwan and Hainan Island.

What preceded it

On August 28, it became known that a Russian LNG tanker had docked in China for the first time despite US sanctions.

The Arctic Mulan loaded its LNG cargo in early June from a floating storage facility in eastern Russia. The fuel in reserve came from the Arctic LNG 2 plant.

Last summer, the plant produced only eight shipments of gas, and in October, it was forced to suspend operations. The reasons included a lack of buyers and seasonal ice formation around the facility. As a result, vessels had to transfer the fuel to storage sites within Russia itself.