Russia Doubles Its LNG Dark Fleet in Race to Boost Gas Exports

By Stephen Stapczynski

Sep 1, 2026 (Bloomberg) –Russia has almost doubled the fleet of tankers ferrying liquefied natural gas from its US-sanctioned Arctic project in less than a year, as the country pushes to boost lucrative exports of the super-chilled fuel in spite of Western restrictions.

According to a Bloomberg analysis of ship-tracking data, currently at least 20 ships — most with the opaque ownership structures typical of so-called dark fleet vessels — have served the Arctic LNG 2 facility and related infrastructure. The latest addition is a Russian-built advanced ice-class vessel, the second of its kind designed to traverse the icy