Several tankers are delivering gas condensate cargoes from Russia's Arctic LNG 2 plant to China, data from market sources and LSEG ship-tracking showed, despite Western sanctions imposed on the ships and the project.
A by-product of liquefied natural gas production, gas condensate is a feedstock used by refineries to produce naphtha, diesel, jet and some petrochemical products, as well as to mix it with heavier crude oils, making them less viscous.
The Arctic LNG 2 project had been set to become one of Russia's largest LNG plants, before it was placed under US and EU sanctions over Moscow's conflict with Ukraine.
At least nine LNG cargoes from the project have been delivered to China since late August, according to LSEG and Kpler data.
While actual gas condensate production volumes on the project are not clear, at least three cargoes totalling around 110,000 tonnes of condensate were shipped last year to the nearby Arctic port of Vitino and stored in tanks, shipping data showed.
Novatek, which owns 60 per cent of Arctic LNG 2, previously used Vitino for gas condensate exports before launching its processing complex in the Baltic port of Ust-Luga in 2013. Novatek denies that it uses sanctioned tankers for shipments from the Arctic LNG 2.
According to data from LSEG and two market sources, the Palau-flagged tanker Elise loaded approximately 60,000 tonnes of condensate at Vitino on August 12 and offloaded the cargo at China’s Gulei port. The tanker was placed under sanctions this year by the UK, Canada, the EU and Switzerland for transporting Russian-origin oil and oil products.
Another vessel, the Gambia-flagged Nexus, departed Vitino with around 43,000 tonnes of condensate on August 29 and is en route to China, LSEG data showed.
In September, the tanker Universal - which is under US and EU sanctions - loaded about 44,000 tonnes of condensate directly from the Arctic LNG 2 plant and travelled along Russia’s Northern Sea Route (NSR) for further ship-to-ship (STS) transfers near the Russian Far East port of Zarubino.
The NSR, which Russia sees as an alternative to the Suez Canal, connects Russian ports with China during summer months, saving tankers up to 10 days at sea compared to travelling via the Suez Canal.
Market sources indicate that the condensate cargo on the Universal was transferred to the Comoros-flagged Noble, which is also bound for Gulei.
On October 12, Universal loaded another condensate cargo from Arctic LNG 2 and is currently moving east along the NSR, ship-tracking data shows.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
