Russia's exports of liquefied natural gas in January-August decreased by 6.3 per cent from a year earlier to 19.3 million tonnes, LSEG preliminary data showed on Monday, reflecting a sharp decline from the Yamal LNG project.
LNG exports from Russia have also been restrained by US sanctions over Ukraine, notably against the new Arctic LNG 2 plant, effectively freezing the project because of the difficulty Moscow faces finding buyers.
China received its first LNG cargo from the sanctioned Russian project last week, ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG showed, days before a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In August alone, Russia's LNG exports fell by 24.5 per cent year on year to 2.07 million tonnes, up three per cent from July, LSEG data showed.
Russian LNG exports to Europe for January-August declined by 16.8 per cent year on year to 9.4 million tonnes. In August alone, the drop was 38.5 per cent year on year to 640,000 tonnes.
Novatek's Yamal LNG plant cut total exports in August by 41 per cent year on year to one million tonnes, which could be related to maintenance work. Deliveries from the plant were at their lowest since December 2023.
Since the beginning of the year, exports from Yamal LNG have decreased by 7.7 per cent year on year to 12 million tonnes.
Asia-oriented Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, increased exports by 6.6 per cent year on year to 6.5 million tonnes for the January-August period.
(Reporting by Reuters Editing by David Goodman)