(Reuters) -Russia’s exports of liquefied natural gas in January-October fell by 3.4% from a year earlier to 25.2 million metric tons (mmt), while jumping 21% to record levels in October amid the launch of supplies from Arctic LNG 2, LSEG data showed on Saturday.
LNG exports from Russia have been restrained by U.S. sanctions over Ukraine, notably against the new Arctic LNG 2 plant, which have significantly limited the use of the tanker fleet for fuel transportation.
China received its first LNG cargo from the sanctioned Russian project at the end of August, ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG showed, days before a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Since then, 13 tankers with cargo from Arctic LNG 2 have unloaded at the Beihai LNG terminal in southern China.
Russian LNG shipments in October increased by 21% to 3.4 mmt a year earlier, a monthly high, and growing by almost 27% from the previous month.
LNG exports from Russia to Europe in the first ten months of this year fell by 17.9% year on year to 11 mmt. In October alone, exports via the same route contracted by 21% to 0.79 compared to the same month in the previous year.
Shipments from Novatek’s Yamal LNG plant grew by 8% in October year on year to 1.76 mmt, and were up by 17% compared to the previous month.
Since the beginning of the year, exports from Yamal have decreased by 6% year on year to 15.2 mmt.
Asia-oriented Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, increased exports by 10% year on year in October to 0.98 mmt.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Gleb Bryanski)
