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A Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant has delivered its first shipment to China since U.S. sanctions were imposed in January, signaling growing energy cooperation between Beijing and Moscow, Bloomberg reports.
Data collected by Bloomberg shows that the vessel Valera, which loaded cargo from Gazprom’s Portovaya facility on the Baltic Sea in October, arrived at the Beihai import terminal in southern China on Monday.
Both the vessel and the Portovaya facility were sanctioned by the Biden administration to curb Russia’s LNG export plans. China, which does not recognize unilateral sanctions, has increasingly purchased blacklisted Russian gas in recent months, strengthening energy ties between the two countries.
Beijing has also ignored broader calls from former U.S. President Donald Trump to halt Russian oil purchases, a topic likely to play a key role in upcoming trade talks between Washington and New Delhi this week.
Russia operates two relatively small LNG export plants on the Baltic Sea, including the Vysotsk facility managed by Novatek, which is also on the U.S. blacklist. Another sanctioned plant, Arctic LNG 2 in Siberia, began shipping fuel to Beihai in late August.
In mid-October, satellite imagery showed a tanker loading at the Portovaya station and transferring fuel to another vessel registered to a Hong Kong-based company near Malaysia. This ship, known as CCH Gas, had been transmitting false location signals and was spotted by satellites near China last month. Its current location remains unknown.
