Foreign shareholders have frozen participation in the Russian project “Arctic LNG-2”

Due to US sanctions, foreign companies have frozen their participation in the large Russian Arctic LNG-2 project.

Last week, Russian Novatek, which owns 60% of the project, declared force majeure due to US sanctions. Now foreign shareholders of the project have made the same statement, rosZMI reports.

The foreign shareholders of “Arctic LNG-2” – TotalEnergies (France), CNPC and CNOOC (China) and the Mitsui and JOGMEC consortium (Japan) – announced force majeure, i.e. freezing of participation. The companies own 40% of the project.

In fact, foreign companies refused to finance Arctic LNG-2 – Novatek will be forced to do it alone. This will make it difficult for the plant to sell, finance and deliver LNG, which could cause it to lose long-term fuel transportation contracts. Also, “Arctic LNG-2” will be forced to sell LNG on the spot market.

At the same time, problems appeared in Russia with the availability of ice-class vessels for gas transportation within the scope of this project. So, the “Zvezda” Shipyard is delaying deliveries of gas carriers due to equipment problems.

Earlier, USM reported that Chinese state-owned companies asked the US to exempt them from sanctions regarding the project of the Russian LNG plant “Arctic LNG-2”. CNOOC Ltd and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) each have a 10% stake in the project.

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