US to ensure Russia can’t develop new energy projects

US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt said the United States is "laser-focused" on ensuring that Russia cannot develop new energy projects that would provide it with future export revenues, Interfax reports citing Bloomberg.

According to him, sanctions against the Arctic LNG 2 project have been effective, and the US wants to ensure that the project is frozen.

Pyatt did not say what the new sanctions might be, but the US wants to reduce Russia's export revenues as soon as possible.

The Arctic LNG 2 project involves the construction of three phases to produce liquefied natural gas with a capacity of 6.6 million tonnes per year. The first phase will be operational in 2024. However, the first cargo has not yet been shipped.

The US Treasury Department placed Arctic LNG 2 LLC on its sanctions list in November 2023, having previously sanctioned some of the project's contractors and Arctic Transshipment LLC, which operates LNG terminals in Murmansk and Kamchatka. Since the summer of 2022, the European Union has imposed sanctions on the supply of equipment for LNG facilities to Russia.

In December 2023, it was announced that NOVATEK had declared force majeure on deliveries of liquefied gas from Arctic LNG 2 to some of its customers.

The media also reported that Arctic LNG 2's foreign shareholders—TotalEnergies, China's CNPC and CNOOC, and a consortium of Japan's Mitsui and JOGMEC (each with a 10% stake)—had declared force majeure on their contracts for the project due to US sanctions. TotalEnergies confirmed this. NOVATEK has a 60% stake in Arctic LNG 2.