In a significant milestone, Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, announced on Friday that it has completed its first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China using the Arctic Northern Sea Route. The receding ice sheets have made this route more accessible, and Moscow sees it as an opportunity to increase its oil and gas deliveries to Asia, particularly as its traditional European clients reduce their energy reliance on Russia due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Gazprom stated, “For the first time, Gazprom has delivered its own LNG production along the Northern Sea Route.”
The main advantage of the Arctic route is that it significantly reduces the shipment duration, cutting the journey by over a week compared to using the Suez Canal in Egypt.
The LNG carrier Velikiy Novgorod, which departed from the Portovaya LNG terminal near the western city of St. Petersburg on August 14th, successfully discharged its cargo on Friday at the northeastern Chinese port of Tangshan in Hebei province. It is worth noting that Novatek, the second-largest natural gas producer in Russia after Gazprom, also utilized this route to deliver LNG to China in 2018.
Gazprom highlighted that this route enables a significant reduction in the time required for LNG deliveries to Asia-Pacific countries.
With Russia facing Western sanctions due to its actions in Ukraine, Gazprom aims to maintain the same volume of LNG deliveries after a decline in the European market. The company’s net profit for the first half of the year plunged by eightfold to $3 billion.
