Western sanctions scare customers away from Putin's Arctic gas project – Financial Times

Russia has been forced to start storing gas from the Russian leader’s flagship Arctic project in a sign that Western sanctions are scaring away customers.

Source: Financial Times

Details: Based on information extrapolated from ship tracking data and satellite imagery, Russia has used three vessels to transport liquefied natural gas from Putin’s Arctic LNG 2 project, which is under US sanctions.

One of the vessels, the Everest Energy, appears to have unloaded at the Saam floating storage facility anchored in a bay in Murmansk Oblast, northern Russia.

It has since headed back towards Arctic LNG 2. The transfer "underscores the challenges that Russia faces in finding buyers for its sanctioned LNG," said analysts at information and analysis platform Kpler.

The other two shipments have not been delivered to a buyer and remained in Russian or European waters as well.

Arctic LNG 2 was supposed to be "a totemic project for the Kremlin", FT suggests, stating that by 2030, the project was supposed to produce 20 million tonnes, or a fifth of Russia's annual LNG production goal, which would be more than three times the amount the country’s current exports.

Background: A gas tanker subject to anti-Russian sanctions was spotted in the Suez Canal carrying out a ship-to-ship transfer to a United Arab Emirates ship that has not been sanctioned.

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