Bloomberg: Moscow, Beijing expand energy cooperation with first LNG delivery

Russian Gazprom’s Baltic liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, Portovaya LNG, has made its first delivery to China since being hit by US sanctions in January, marking a further step in Moscow-Beijing energy cooperation.

The shipment was carried out by the vessel Valera, which is also under US sanctions, Bloomberg reports.

In October, it loaded a batch from the Portovaya terminal and arrived on December 8 at the Beihai terminal in southern China.

Russia has two LNG export plants in the Baltics, with the Vysotsk plant, owned by PJSC Novatek, also on the US blacklist.

Another sanctioned Russian plant, Arctic LNG 2, began fuel deliveries to Beihai in August, the agency notes.

In mid-October, satellite images captured a tanker loading at Portovaya and transferring fuel to another vessel registered to a Hong Kong company. This ship, known as CCH Gas, was spotted by satellites near China. Its current location is unknown.

Portovaya LNG, located on Russia’s Baltic coast near St. Petersburg, launched operations in September 2022 with a nominal liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity of about 1.5 million tonnes per year.

Another medium-scale Baltic facility, Cryogas‑Vysotsk LNG (operated by Novatek), has capacity in the order of 0.66–0.82 million tonnes per year.

Before 2025, exports from these Baltic terminals typically went to customers in Türkiye, Greece, Spain, and also to China.

In early 2025, the United States imposed sanctions on both the Portovaya and Cryogas‑Vysotsk projects, including on the LNG carriers servicing them, effectively freezing their conventional export operations.

As a result, exports from these Baltic plants declined sharply: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), sanctions could reduce Russia’s LNG exports by about 5 % in 2025.

By Jeyhun Aghazada