US intends to deprive Moscow of revenues from liquefied natural gas exports

“Our goal with Russia is simple: it’s to drive down the revenue it enjoys from its oil and gas resources,” he said.

Last year, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia's new Arctic LNG 2 export plant and then began imposing restrictions on ships that began taking fuel from the plant in August of this year. So far, no gas tankers have docked at a foreign port for fear of US retaliation, a rare success for Washington in curbing Russian commodity exports.

However, the United States refrained from sanctioning other Russian LNG plants, including Yamal or Portovaya, which continue to ship cargo to Europe and Asia. Measures against these facilities are likely to limit global LNG supplies and push prices up.

“Our policy is working. I can’t speculate on future sanctions actions, but what I can tell you is that we’re paying very, very close attention to where sanctioned Russian cargoes are heading, and you can be assured that the Biden administration is going to continue to tighten the screws against Russia’s LNG exports,” Pyatt said.

Moscow's plans for Arctic LNG 2 were complicated last year when it was included in Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prompting foreign shareholders to freeze their participation and Novatek to declare force majeure.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Geoffrey Pyatt said that Washington aims to “kill” this Russian project.