Liquefied natural gas industry in Russia

The first plant, Sakhalin II, was completed in Russia in 2009 having utilised the skills of Shell plc, who under duress sold 50% of the project to Gazprom in 2006.

[2] In 2022 Russia was the fourth largest LNG exporter with sales expected to increase as the production capacity rises to 15-20% of the world market by 2035.

[2] Exports from the Arctic plants relies on ice breaking LNG carriers, only a few Arc7-class tankers have been built of the 21 ordered.

[7] From 2014 Russia used Fluxys facilities in Zeebrugge, Belgium for transshipment of LNG exports to the Asia-Pacific region or to feed into the EU network.

[6] It is believed in 2023 by the sanction countries that the current restrictions will drastically reduce the opportunities for the industry’s expansion in Russia.

[5] Arctic LNG2 trains two and three will be delayed as gas turbines are not available from the west to power the plant needing a reconfiguration of the system.

[23] Delays are also expected in completion of Arc7 ice-class tankers, until late 2024 and an LNG floating storage unit ordered from South Korea.

[40] In December 2023 Novatek announced that the start of Arctic LNG2 will be delayed after sending force majeure notices to some buyers citing sanctions imposed by the US in November make it impossible to supply gas,[41] foreign investors from France, China and Japan had themselves declared “force majeure” halted their participation.

[28] In December 2023 a Russian presidential decree gave the government the power to confiscate and forcibly sell off assets belonging to European energy firms.

Due to its shorter length, navigation on the NSR contributes to reducing the carbon footprint of maritime transport, although this entails considerable risks for fragile Arctic ecosystems.

[47] Russia has no plans to become carbon neutral before 2100 and intends to exploit fossil fuels in the Arctic for the Asian market.

[11] It was reported in August 2022 that the Portovaya LNG plant was burning off 4.34 million cubic metres of gas, worth $10m by flare every day, generating 9,000 tonnes of CO2 and soot.