Bloomberg: Expansion of Russian Liquefied Gas Production Will Slow Down for Several Years 0 18

Russia is forced to postpone plans to triple liquefied natural gas production for several years due to international sanctions. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, commenting on the impact of restrictions on the development of the industry. "Our goal was to achieve a production volume of LNG of 100 million tons per year. It is obvious that due to the sanctions, achieving this goal will be delayed for several years," he said (quote from Bloomberg).

Previously, Russian authorities expected to increase LNG production to 100 million tons by 2030 and capture about 20% of the global market, the agency reminds. However, Western countries, including the U.S., have consistently imposed a series of energy sanctions, including those targeting LNG production and export projects, in order to reduce the Kremlin's revenues used to finance the war in Ukraine.

The U.S. has included almost all Russian liquefied gas production projects in the sanctions lists, except for "Yamal LNG," which is operated by Novatek. Restrictions have also been imposed on the fleet involved in transporting fuel abroad. Despite this, in recent months, Russia has increased LNG supplies to China.

Last month, Russia ranked second among the largest LNG suppliers to China, second only to Qatar, thanks to a more than twofold increase in exports, Bloomberg reports. According to Chinese customs data for November, Russian LNG imports amounted to 1.6 million tons compared to 1.3 million tons in October and about 0.7 million tons a year earlier. Thus, Russia surpassed Australia, which supplied 1.5 million tons of LNG to China and is traditionally considered one of the key suppliers to the Chinese market.

The increase in exports was also ensured by supplies from the "Arctic LNG 2" project, whose fuel has been received by the Chinese port of Beihai since the end of August. This port was specifically designated by Beijing for receiving Russian LNG, which is under sanctions.

As with oil, due to Western restrictions, Russia has to sell liquefied gas at a noticeable discount. According to Chinese customs, Russian LNG turned out to be the cheapest among shipments from 12 suppliers and was priced about 10% lower than the average price, which was around $9.85 per million British thermal units.

In total, in the first 11 months of 2025, Russia produced nearly 30 million tons of LNG, Interfax reported.