Blinken aide vows to 'kill' Russian Arctic LNG 2 project

Washington’s goal is to stop the work of the Russian Arctic LNG-2 project, said US Assistant Secretary of State Pyatt. Moscow considers sanctions illegal

The United States is seeking to terminate the existence of the Russian Arctic LNG-2 project, implemented by NOVATEK. This was stated by Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Geoffrey Pyatt, speaking at a meeting of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Last week we decided to introduce new sanctions against the Arctic LNG-2 project, one of NOVATEK’s main projects, and the structures involved in it. Our goal is to kill this project. And we do this by imposing sanctions, working with our G7 partners,” said the assistant secretary of state.

Payette also noted that the United States is currently the leader in the supply of liquefied natural gas and intends to increase its share in the global LNG market.

Russia condemns Western sanctions and considers them illegal.

Arctic LNG-2 is NOVATEK’s second major LNG export project after the Yamal LNG plant with a capacity of 16.5 million tons per year, launched in 2017. Located near the northwestern coast of the Gydansky Peninsula in the Tazovsky district of Yamal. In total, it is planned to build three technological lines with a capacity of 6.6 million tons each (a total of 19.8 million tons per year). It was previously reported that the launch of the first line is planned for 2023, the second - for 2024, and the third - for 2025.

Construction is being carried out by Arctic LNG-2 LLC, which was included in the American sanctions list on November 2. NOVATEK owns 60% of the shares of this company. French Totalenergies , Chinese CNPC and CNOOC and a consortium of Japanese Mitsui and JOGMEC each own 10% of the shares. Previously, the US Treasury set January 31, 2024 as the deadline for completing transactions with Arctic LNG 2 LLC.

There are only two large-scale LNG projects operating in Russia: Yamal LNG (with a design capacity of 16.5 million tons, owned by NOVATEK) and Sakhalin-2 (9.6 million tons, 50% plus one share from Gazprom ) . Among the medium-tonnage projects, the plant operates at the Portovaya compressor station (1.5 million tons, owned by Gazprom LNG Portovaya) and Cryogaz-Vysotsk (660 thousand tons, a subsidiary of NOVATEK). There are also 18 small-scale plants in Russia with a total installed capacity of more than 260 thousand tons.

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The head of the Ministry of Energy Nikolai Shulginov previously said that LNG supplies from Russia in 2023 will remain at the level of last year. The Ministry of Economic Development previously noted that planned exports this year will be 33.3 million tons, which is slightly higher than the 2022 level - 32.9 million tons in 2022.

On November 2, President Vladimir Putin signed laws that significantly simplify LNG supplies for Rosneft and NOVATEK. The state plans to increase LNG production to 102.5 million tons by 2030 (of which up to 64 million tons in the Arctic) and to 140 million tons by 2035. According to the conclusion of the State Duma Committee on Energy, potential gas reserves on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas exceed 20 trillion cubic meters. m.