Arctic project drives growth in Russian LNG exports

Russia's exports of liquefied natural gas rose 9.9 per cent in the first half of the year to 16.6 million tonnes, boosted by growing supplies from the new Arctic LNG 2 project, preliminary LSEG data showed on Thursday.

However, June exports fell 1.5 per cent from a year earlier and 37 per cent from May to 2.03 million tonnes, due to seasonal maintenance at the Asia-orientated Sakhalin-2 plant.

Sakhalin-2, controlled by Russian state gas company Gazprom, suspended LNG output and exports with effect from June 17, due to planned maintenance, according to LSEG ship-tracking data.

Supplies from Arctic LNG 2 reached around 1.6 million tonnes in the first half of this year, according to the data.