China has received a sixth LNG cargo from Russia’s heavily sanctioned Arctic export project in a sign that the Chinese-Russian trade from Arctic LNG 2 has been flourishing in recent weeks despite U.S. and European sanctions on the project.
The Arctic Mulan discharged its LNG cargo at the Chinese terminal of Beihai on Tuesday, Reuters reports, citing vessel-tracing data on LSEG and Kpler.
The Arctic Mulan has thus made a second voyage from the Russian plant to China, being the first vessel to offload fuel from Arctic LNG 2 in China at the end of August.
The Russian project is now shipping out regularly, with at least two or three vessels spotted en route from the plant to Asia, according to tanker-tracking services.
The Russian export project has been under U.S., EU, and UK sanctions. Arctic LNG 2, operated by Russian LNG exporter Novatek, had struggled for more than a year to find buyers after the Western sanctions were imposed last year.
However, the export plant came to life this summer and has been shipping cargoes to China in recent weeks.
Arctic LNG 2 roared back to life in August, in a sign that Russia is done waiting and is now sending off loaded LNG cargoes, which could be testing the Trump Administration’s willingness to sanction Russia’s LNG customers in China.
For over a year, the U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2, which was billed as Russia’s flagship LNG project, had effectively frozen the start-up of the export facility in the Gydan Peninsula.
The wait ended at the end of August, when a cargo from the facility docked at a Chinese import terminal. The Arctic Mulan arrived at the Beihai LNG terminal, and China received the cargo, making it the first-ever actual exported cargo out of the Russian facility.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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