(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project has less than a month left to send liquefied-gas cargoes across the Northern Sea Route toward Asia before the passage closes down for its tankers until next summer.
Earlier-than-usual ice cover in the eastern Arctic will close navigation across that section of the route for non-ice class vessels from Oct. 15, according to state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which manages the channel.
The early end to the eastbound navigation season will further limit export options for Arctic LNG 2, after it already struggled to ship its cargoes and find buyers amid toughening US sanctions. The restrictions have denied the project access to more resilient ice-class tankers, forcing it to use only lighter vessels, which delayed the start of loadings until early August.
Arctic LNG 2, which originally had a design capacity of 19.8 million tons a year, is a key element in Russia’s plans to expand its presence in the global liquefied-gas market. The White House and its allies have been trying to curb those ambitions and the Kremlin’s energy revenues by imposing restrictions on this and future LNG projects in Russia.
Since the start of the exports, the plant has loaded six shipments, including one cargo already shipped across the Northern Sea Route to a storage site in Russia’s Far East and another that is still on its eastbound journey. None of the cargoes has found a buyer so far.
The project will be able to send its cargoes on non-ice-class vessels via the western section of the Northern Sea Route, but only until Nov. 15, under Russian navigation rules.
Russia will push forward with developing its LNG business, President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month, while acknowledging the difficulties the western sanctions present for Novatek PJSC, Russia’s largest liquefied-gas producer and the main shareholder in Arctic LNG 2.
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