A second tanker from Portovaya delivered LNG to Beihai despite US sanctions, raising questions about enforcement and market impacts.
Gazprom has sent to China the second LNG cargo since sanctions were imposed from the Portovaya plant on the Baltic Sea.
According to LSEG vessel-tracking data, the LNG carrier Valera (formerly known as Veliky Novgorod) loaded a cargo at the Portovaya plant on January 25, 2025 and delivered it to the Beihai LNG terminal on Wednesday.
The Portovaya plant, with an output capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per year, began operations in September 2022. However, exports from the plant were suspended due to additional U.S. sanctions introduced in January 2025 as part of restrictions on the Kremlin’s ability to produce and export LNG and to reduce revenue from this trade.
Timeline of LNG deliveries from the Portovaya plant
The first cargo from the plant after the interruption was delivered to the Beihai terminal in December of last year.
Another sanctioned Russian plant, Arctic LNG-2, is also supplying LNG to Beihai.
Before the sanctions, Portovaya typically sent about two cargoes per month. Since March 2025, in addition to two shipments to China, the plant has been sending one cargo per month to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Initially, most shipments from Portovaya were sent to Turkey and Greece, but over time the geography of deliveries expanded to China, Spain, and Italy.
Overall, the Portovaya complex remains an important source of Russian LNG for Asian and European markets, despite sanctions and changing demand.