Russia is expanding its shadow fleet for LNG exports despite sanctions
Russia continues to expand its shadow fleet to export liquefied natural gas in circumvention of Western sanctions, according to Bloomberg.
The tanker Arctic Express docked at the Saam floating storage unit in the Murmansk region and loaded liquefied natural gas. This is the first time a vessel has transported fuel from a facility subject to US sanctions.
The Saam floating storage unit is used to store gas from the Arctic LNG 2 project. Both Saam and Arctic LNG 2 are subject to US sanctions.
In May, the Arctic Express changed its flag to the Russian flag. According to the Equasis ship database, on or around 13 May, the vessel came under the ownership of Smp Techmanagement LLC, based in St Petersburg.
The tanker was commissioned in 2007 and was previously operated by a Greek company.
According to an analysis of shipping traffic, including the Arctic Express, Russia is already using at least 21 vessels to transport LNG from projects subject to sanctions.
Smp Techmanagement also owns three other LNG tankers that form part of Russia’s shadow fleet.
Earlier this year, Russia also added four more tankers to the shadow fleet, which had previously served the LNG export plant in Oman.
The main obstacle to increasing exports from Arctic LNG 2 remains the shortage of vessels capable of transporting the fuel to buyers willing to purchase it.
In May, Arctic LNG 2 exported over 400,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas. This was a record figure for the project, which began shipments in 2024.
