Russia’s Novatek-owned Yamal LNG plant has deployed the LNG tanker Axios II for ship-to-ship operations in the Barents Sea, LSEG data shows.

The Axios II, which sails under the Marshall Islands flag, was built by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries 329180.KS and delivered earlier this year to Greek firm Capital Clean Energy Carriers.

According to LSEG ship-tracking data, it is moored near the island of Kildin in Russia’s Murmansk Oblast together with the Nikolay Urvantsev Arc7 ice-class tanker.

Ship-to-ship transfers usually involve moving LNG from ice-class tankers on to conventional ones, but can also be used to complicate cargo tracking.

Yamal LNG is currently using the LNG tankers Gui Ying and Wen Cheng for exports via ship-to-ship transfers off Murmansk, ship-tracking data shows.

While some countries, including China and India, continue to buy Russian energy despite Western sanctions, they are sometimes wary of advertising the fact to try to avoid diplomatic tensions.

A European Union ban on the transhipment operations for Russian LNG cargoes in European ports comes into force at the end of March 2025.

Russia is the world’s fourth largest LNG producer behind the U.S., Australia and Qatar.

Source: Reuters reported by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin, edited by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely