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Sanctioned tankers carrying oil from sanctioned Russian LNG project

The LNG tanker 'Arctic Vostok' (IMO: 9216298), carrying a cargo from Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project, has berthed at the Beihai terminal on Sep 30. If the tanker discharges its cargo, it would be the 7th load that the Chinese terminal has received from the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is under sanctions because of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The LNG tanker picked up LNG from a storage facility in Kamchatka since Aug 30. The tanker is managed by the SMP Techmanagement while the registered owner was Lule One Services. Despite sanctions, the Arctic LNG 2, which is 60 % owned by Russia’s Novatek, has been sending out LNG since 2024, with cargoes being delivered to two storage facilities in Russia and the Beihai LNG terminal. The last two cargoes loaded from the Arctic LNG 2 facility in Gydan were taken aboard the 'Christophe De Margerie' (IMO: 9737187) and the 'Voskhod'. Another sanctioned tanker, the 'La Perouse' (IMO: 9849887), which also loaded 150,000 cubic meters of LNG from the project, was heading toward the Bay of Bengal. One more sanctioned tanker, the 'Arctic Metagaz', which is also carrying a cargo from Arctic LNG 2, is currently near the Beihai LNG terminal too. It picked up a cargo from a floating storage facility in Murmansk on July 17, which has also only received cargoes from the Arctic LNG 2 project.

Tanker had to reverse due to ice buildup

The 'Arctic Metagas', a tanker without ice protection, had to reverse its course and remained stopped near the edge of the sea ice on the Northern Sea Route. The vessel’s struggles highlighted the challenges for non ice-class vessels in Arctic shipping, even during the summer months. The 'Arctic Metagaz' is part of Russia’s expanding shadow fleet of LNG carriers in service of the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project. The tanker idled in the East Siberian Sea around 48 hours after it reversed course. The vessel was passing through patches of remaining summer sea ice following in proximity to the nuclear icebreaker 'Sibir' on Aug 29 when it began backtracking her initial course just after midnight UTC. The vessel had departed from the port of Murmansk around Aug 19, carrying sanctioned supercooled gas in search of buyers in Asia. From Aug 29 to Aug 3, the tanker was backtracking and idling at a speed of zero knots at the edge of the sea ice. The 'Sibir' has been working for several weeks in the East Siberian Sea in an effort to open up shipping lanes through persistent summer sea ice along the Northern Sea Route. Russian ice charts were showing considerable ice coverage in the waters near Pevek, ranging from 10 to 60 %, including grounded hummocks. The summer season 2025 was the second year in a row when sea ice blocked the eastern reaches of the route even during late summer.

Sanctioned tankers permitted to sail Northern Sea Route

During the recent days of late May, 2025, at least a half-dozen sanctioned LNG carriers have received permits to sail Russia’s Northern Sea Route during the summer months. The vessels were including the last summer’s shadow fleet carriers 'Arctic Metagas' (ex-'Everest Energy') and 'Arctic Mulan' (ex-'Mulan'), as well as the recently-reflagged and sanctioned tanker 'Iris' (ex-'North Sky'), 'Buran' (ex-'North Air'), 'Voskhod (ex-'North Mountain'), and 'Zarya' (ex-'North Way'). In total, almost 30 LNG tankers have now been granted permits to travel through Russia’s Arctic waters in the coming months. Among them are at least six conventional gas tankers without any ice-class. The bulk of the fleet remained unsanctioned and was operating legally, carrying liquefied gas from the Yamal LNG project.