Russia’s exports of liquefied natural gas in January-August decreased by 6.3% from a year earlier to 19.3 million metric tons, LSEG preliminary data showed on Monday, reflecting a sharp decline from the Yamal LNG project.

LNG exports from Russia have also been restrained by U.S. 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% year on year to 2.07 million tons, up 3% from July, LSEG data showed.

Russian LNG exports to Europe for January-August declined by 16.8% year on year to 9.4 million tons. In August alone, the drop was 38.5% year on year to 640,000 tons.

Novatek’s Yamal LNG plant cut total exports in August by 41% year on year to 1 million tons, 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% year on year to 12 million tons.
Asia-oriented Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, increased exports by 6.6% year on year to 6.5 million tons for the January-August period.

Source: Reuters