Russians cannot unload LNG from Arctic ports because of ice
15.12.2025 - 14:42
Despite the fact that the terminal has already shipped over 1 million tons of LNG since June, the shipments have hit a logistics bottleneck.
The “shadow” gas carrier Buran has stopped trying to load Russian LNG at the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 terminal due to ice jams, Bloomberg reports.
The tanker set course for Arctic LNG 2 in late November. It maneuvered several times near the Gulf of Ob and turned towards Murmansk over the weekend.
However, as winter ice builds up, voyages to and from the plant on the Gydan Peninsula are becoming increasingly difficult.
Buran has an Arc4 ice-strengthening class — sufficient for relatively thin ice, but not for stable Arctic navigation in peak frosts. At the same time, there is actually only one Arc7-class tanker in the “shadow” segment of the Russian Federation — the Christophe de Margerie, capable of operating in ice all year round.
Recall that after the US sanctions in January, Russian LNG was already being sent to China, bypassing Africa – another marker of how sanctions and seasonal conditions are reshaping routes and increasing the costs of Russian exports. USM previously wrote that China is forming a new scheme for importing Russian LNG.
