Russian energy giant Gazprom has delivered a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from Portovaya LNG plant to China, in the first such shipment since the United States introduced sanctions against the project in January, LSEG data showed on Monday.
Gas carrier Valera, formerly known as Velikiy Novgorod, brought the cargo from the Baltic Sea’s plant to the Beihai LNG terminal, LSEG ship-tracking data showed. Russia’s largest LNG producer, Novatek, uses the same loading outlet in China for cargoes from Arctic LNG 2 plant.
The tanker was loaded at Portovaya on October 28 and has arrived to the southern Chinese port of Tieshan, the data showed. The small-scale Portovaya LNG plant, which has a production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per year, started operations in September 2022.
Exports were suspended in February this year following the introduction of the US sanctions over Ukraine to directly disrupt Russia’s ability to produce and export LNG and reduce Russia’s revenue from LNG exports.
At the early stages of its operations, most cargoes from Portovaya had been delivered to Turkey and Greece. Supply markets subsequently widened to China, Spain and Italy.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Bernadette Baum)