Russia's exports of liquefied natural gas declined by 2.5 per cent in 2025 to 31.3 million tonnes, preliminary LSEG data showed on Tuesday, amid Western sanctions over Ukraine.
For December alone, Russian LNG shipments decreased by two per cent from a year earlier to 2.99 million tonnes, while slipping by 3.5 per cent from November.
LNG exports from Russia have been curbed by US sanctions, notably against the new Arctic LNG 2 plant, which have significantly limited the use of the tanker fleet for fuel transport. Europe also plans to completely shun Russian LNG from 2027.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday Russia has pushed back by "several years" a plan to reach an annual liquefied natural gas output target of 100 million tonnes, citing sanctions.
Exports from Arctic LNG 2 are all going to China.
China received its first LNG cargo from the sanctioned Russian project at the end of August, ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG showed, days before a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
LNG exports from Russia to Europe this year fell by 16 per cent to 13.8 million tonnes, preliminary data showed.
In December, exports to Europe totalled around 1.5 million tonnes, down from 1.8 million tonnes in the same month a year ago.
Shipments from Novatek's Yamal LNG plant declined by 6.6 per cent this year to 18.3 million tonnes, according to the data.
In December, the supplies from the plant fell by 14 per cent year on year to 1.5 million tonnes. This month, all of the cargoes from the project went to Europe.
Supplies from Arctic LNG 2 amounted to 1.2 million tonnes this year, the data showed, compared to just 200,000 tonnes in 2024.
In December, the deliveries fell to 148,000 tonnes from 222,000 tonnes in November. Asia-oriented Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, saw exports rise four per cent this year to 10.3 million tonnes.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Susan Fenton)