Foreign gas carriers carrying Baltic LNG were left out of business

Foreign LNG tankers that serviced the Portovaya and Cryogaz Vysotsk projects that were sanctioned have been idle for almost three months. The vessels belong to European shipowners and are not in demand after the transportation of Russian raw materials is stopped.

LNG tankers Cool Rover, Coral Nordic and Coral Fungia have been out of service for months. The first one exported liquefied gas from the Portovaya complex, the rest from the Vysotsk Cryogaz plant. In January, the United States announced a package of sanctions against the Russian oil and gas industry, and two Baltic projects owned by Gazprom, Novatek and Gazprombank fell under restrictions.

Cool Rover belongs to a Greek shipowner and has been out of business since January, when it delivered the last batch to Spain. The gas carrier continues to stay in the same place — at The Iberian Peninsula. According to AIS, on May 16, the vessel, which can carry 90 million cubic meters of gas in the form of LNG, was anchored in the port of Gibraltar.

Also, the Dutch gas carrier Anthony Veder — Coral Nordic remains out of work. He serviced Cryogaz Vysotsk and carried LNG to the Belgian Zeebrugge. The gas carrier made its last flight at the end of February. On May 16, the ship was anchored at the Danish Skagen. Another vessel that serviced Cryogaz Vysotsk, Coral Fungia, was more fortunate. The gas carrier made one flight to the UK in May. Both tankers of the Dutch shipowner are small, can carry up to 17 million cubic meters in the form of LNG.

It is not known whether the long downtime of the vessels is due to the lack of orders or whether contracts with Russian projects in the Baltic continue to operate.

The total design capacity of the two sanctioned LNG complexes is 2.2 million tons (3 billion cubic meters). This is about 6-7% of Russian LNG exports.

In 2024, the export of liquefied gas from Russia has reached a record, RBC reported with reference to Kpler data. Deliveries increased to 33.6 million tons. The main export projects are Yamal LNG and Sakhalin—2. Portovaya and Cryogaz Vysotsk accounted for 2.3 million tons in 2024.

Back in November 2023, the United States imposed sanctions against the second Arctic LNG—2 project and promised to kill all new projects in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that sanctions create problems, but Russia will bypass them. The government of the country plans that by 2030 LNG exports will almost triple to 100 million tons.