Russia and China Defy U.S. Sanctions with New LNG Shipments

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China has just welcomed the first shipment from a Russian LNG export project on the Baltic Sea sanctioned by the U.S. on a U.S.-blacklisted vessel, as Russia and China continue to flaunt Western sanctions on their LNG trade.
The LNG tanker Valera, sanctioned by the United States, docked at the Chinese LNG import terminal of Beihai on Monday, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg.
In October, Valera loaded LNG from the Portovaya LNG small-scale export plant on the Baltic Sea, Gazprom’s only LNG export facility. Portovaya and its Russia-based operator, Gazprom SPG Portovaya Limited Liability Company, were sanctioned by the United States in January 2025 in one of the last actions of the Biden Administration in a barrage of sanctions to “degrade Russia’s energy sector.”
In these sanctions, the U.S. also designated another small-scale LNG export facility on the Black Sea, the Vysotsk plant operated by Russia’s top LNG exporter Novatek.
Today’s delivery of LNG from the sanctioned Portovaya plant on the sanctioned vessel Valera signals that Russia and China are flaunting U.S. sanction and intensify their energy trade that’s mutually beneficial—China buys cheaper oil and gas while Russia has an outlet for its output that’s shunned and banned in the West.
Russia has been stepping up efforts to sell its sanctioned LNG supply in Asia in recent months.
Clear evidence of these efforts is the rising exports from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project to China in defiance of U.S., UK, and EU sanctions on the project and tankers serving its exports.
China is estimated to have received more than a dozen LNG cargoes from Arctic LNG 2 as Beijing and Moscow appear bolder in defying U.S. and other Western sanctions on Russia’s energy exports.
After struggling for more than a year to find buyers, Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project roared back to life in August, in a sign that Russia is done waiting and is now sending off loaded LNG cargoes, which could be testing the Trump Administration’s willingness to sanction Russia’s LNG customers in China.