Sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 Tanker Reaches China After Putin-Xi Meeting | Ukraine news

According to the ship-tracking service, the second tanker from the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 has arrived at a Chinese port a few days after the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. The information is highlighted in analytical summaries of ship routes.

According to LSEG, the Russian tanker “Voskhod”, flying the Russian flag, dropped anchor at the LNG terminal of the Tieshan port, located in the southwestern part of Guangdong. The vessel with a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters of LNG was loaded on July 19 at the Arctic LNG 2 plant on the Gydan Peninsula in northern Siberia.

This is the second sanctioned cargo from Arctic LNG 2 to reach China after the Arctic Mulan previously arrived at the Beihai LNG terminal, also under sanctions. Arctic Mulan became the first Arctic LNG cargo to reach the end consumer since the project’s launch.

Context and Confirmation

The publication could not confirm the unloading of LNG at the Tieshan port, and calls to the port terminal went unanswered. The Arctic LNG 2 project began production in December 2023, but is facing delays due to a shortage of icebreaker LNG carriers and Western sanctions related to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This cargo arrived in the context of Putin’s visit to China for the SCO summit and a military parade marking the end of World War II. Arctic LNG 2, 60% of which is owned by the Russian company Novatek, was set to become one of Russia’s largest LNG plants with a target production capacity of 19.8 million tonnes per year, but sanctions cast doubt on its prospects.

According to Kpler, in 2024 eight shipments were dispatched from Arctic LNG 2 to several tankers under sanctions, four of which were unloaded at a floating storage facility in the Kamchatka region. This year the project has already shipped six known cargoes, with some sanctioned vessels moving east via the Northern Sea Route. According to LSEG, two tankers are currently moored at Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, and a third in the South China Sea between Taiwan and Hainan Island.

The flows of Arctic LNG 2 remain at the center of geopolitical calculations, where economic need and sanctions pressure intersect with Russia’s ambitions to scale up LNG exports to Asia.