Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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A sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 tanker has berthed at China's Beihai terminal, marking the seventh delivery despite sanctions due to Russia's war in Ukraine.
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker carrying cargo from Russia's sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project berthed at China's Beihai terminal on Tuesday, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.
If the tanker discharges its cargo, that would make it the seventh load that the Chinese terminal has received from the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is under sanctions because of Russia's war in Ukraine.
The Arctic Vostok tanker picked up LNG from a storage facility in Kamchatka, in the Russian Far East, on August 30, before heading towards China's Beihai LNG terminal in the southern region of Guangxi, according to Kpler. LSEG data showed the tanker loaded the cargo on September 6.
The storage facility has only received cargoes from the Arctic LNG 2 project.
Shipping database Equasis lists the tanker's ship or commercial manager as SMP Techmanagement while the registered owner was Lule One Services. Reuters was not able to find any contact information for the registered owner or manager.
PipeChina, operator of the Beihai LNG terminal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite sanctions, Arctic LNG 2, which is 60% owned by Russia's Novatek, has been sending out LNG since last year, 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 in northern Siberia are currently sailing east via the Northern Sea Route on the Christophe De Margerie and Voskhod LNG tankers.
Another sanctioned tanker, La Perouse, which also loaded 150,000 cubic meters of LNG from the sanctioned project, travelled south past Europe, Africa and through the Indian Ocean and is now heading toward the Bay of Bengal, according to LSEG and Kpler data.
Another sanctioned tanker, Arctic Metagaz, which is carrying cargo from Arctic LNG 2, is also currently near China's Beihai LNG terminal. It picked up a cargo from a floating storage facility in Murmansk, northwest Russia, on July 17, according to Kpler data.
This storage facility has also only received cargoes from the Arctic LNG 2 project.
(Reporting by Emily Chow in Singapore and Sam Li in Beijing; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus.)
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been cooled to a liquid state for ease of storage and transport. LNG takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in its gaseous state.
Sanctions are restrictive measures imposed by countries or international organizations to influence or punish a nation or entity. They can include trade restrictions, financial penalties, and travel bans.
The Arctic LNG 2 project is a liquefied natural gas production facility located in Russia's Arctic region, aimed at exporting LNG to global markets. It is partially owned by Novatek.
The Beihai LNG terminal is a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal located in Guangxi, China. It is designed to import LNG and facilitate its distribution within China.
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