Russia has carried out its first ship-to-ship (STS) transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) using so-called “shadow fleet” vessels, teaming up with a Chinese gas carrier. Satellite images and partial AIS data suggest that the transfer took place off the coast of Malaysia on October 18, 2025 between the 170,471-cbm Perle and the 145,000-cbm CCH Gas. 

The move marks a new phase in Russia’s efforts to move energy exports outside Western oversight and sanctions. Perle was carrying cargo from Gazprom’s Portovaya LNG plant in the Baltic Sea. The U.S. sanctioned the facility in January 2025 and Gazprom has since then been unable to find any foreign buyers for its supercooled gas.

The transfer took place around 50 nautical miles off Malaysia’s eastern coast. A Sentinel 2 satellite image shows the two vessels moored alongside, standard for a STS operation. The gas transfer between Perle and CCH Gas follows the familiar playbook used for transferring crude oil on the high seas in the hopes of obscuring its origin in an attempt to shield the buyer from sanctions. 

While Moscow has conducted hundreds of STS operations in the open in Norwegian and Russian waters, the transfer off Malaysia is likely the first time two LNG carriers have attempted to do so with their AIS transponders turned off.

“Yes, this was the first time we saw a dark STS transfer of Russian LNG in this part of the world.
Oh, and CCH GAS did a lousy job at spoofing,” says Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, an online service that tracks and reports shipments of crude oil.

CCH Gas, built in 2006, is part of a number of older LNG steamships sold by Western operators to often unnamed Chinese buyers throughout 2024 and 2025.

The vessel, called Condor LNG at the time, was sold in early 2025 by TMS Cardiff. It was the last steamship the company offloaded. 

The vessel has since been registered to CCH-1 Shipping Co Ltd out of Hong Kong. Management is by Primepath Shipping Ltd out of Shanghai, according to the Equasis shipping database. 

The STS move further expands Russia’s LNG export operation in the face of Western sanctions. Two months ago it began sending cargoes from Novatek’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 to the Beihai Terminal in southern China. It has since managed to make ten deliveries. The UK last week sanctioned the terminal, though the measures will likely show little effect as China had already rerouted all other cargoes away from the terminal.