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Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 Barely Pumps Any Gas After Sanctions Lock In Exports

The Arctic LNG 2 project in the Arctic circle. (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project has slashed output at its gas fields to nearly zero so far in November after stopping liquefaction last month due to western sanctions. 

Fields feeding the Novatek PJSC-led facility pumped an average of 0.4 million cubic meters of gas a day in the first ten days of November, according to a person with knowledge of industry data, who spoke on condition of anonymity. That’s a drop of more than 90% from the average output for most of October, Bloomberg calculations show. 

It is also the lowest average production rate for the project since at least September 2023, according to historical figures. Even during pre-commissioning and commissioning of the first Arctic LNG 2 train in the fourth quarter of last year, its fields produced between 2 million and almost 14 million cubic meters a day, said the person familiar with the data.  

The near-zero output at Arctic LNG 2 in November follows the halt reported by Bloomberg last month of the facility’s liquefaction processes. 

Arctic LNG 2 is key for Russia’s ambitions to boost exports of LNG and develop its Northern Sea Route, so it has been the target of several waves of western sanctions in the past year over the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. Penalties imposed by the US and its allies all but forced out other investors, limited the plant’s access to ice-class tankers needed to navigate Arctic waters and made foreign buyers reluctant to buy the cargoes. 

Arctic LNG 2 and its largest shareholder, Russia-based Novatek, didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg’s requests for a comment. 

The facility has a design capacity of 19.8 million tons of LNG per year, but so far only one train able to produce 6.6 million tons annually is operational. It ramped up production of the super-chilled fuel in August and September, when ice conditions allowed it to deploy conventional gas carriers, often with opaque ownership, to export its cargoes. None of those shipments have been delivered to overseas ports. 

 

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.