Russia has only sanctioned LNG free for Asia so far: but at a discount

Yamal LNG continues to supply LNG only to Europe for the fourth month in a row, and only one tanker has so far headed for China. Of the available volumes, Russian companies so far have only sanctioned liquefied natural gas — from the Arctic LNG —2 and Portovaya projects.

"Russia is trying to use the global shortage of natural gas to persuade energy—starved South Asia to purchase supplies from its plants under US sanctions," writes Bloomberg.

Agency sources said that last week, sanctioned supplies were offered at a discount of 40% from spot prices through little-known intermediary companies from China and Russia.

"The sellers claimed that they could provide documents that would create the appearance that deliveries were made from non—Russian sources, such as Oman or Nigeria," the agency writes.

Sanctions were imposed on the Arctic LNG—2 project in November 2023, and on the Portovaya complex in March 2026. Their current total capacity is about 14 million tons (19 billion cubic meters) per year. And so far, all deliveries from sanctioned projects are going to China — through the southern terminal in Beihai.

At the same time, judging by AIS data, the biggest difficulties are with the sale of Gazprom's Baltic LNG. The Perle and Valera tankers have been in Asia for several months.

As EADaily reported, the first EU ban on Russian gas will come into force at the end of April — on short-term LNG contracts. Then, some of the fuel that is not under sanctions will also obviously be redirected to Asia, where fuel shortages have already begun due to the suspension of supplies from The Persian Gulf. For example, India and Bangladesh have already stopped supplying fertilizer plants.