Russia has nearly doubled its "shadow fleet" of tankers for exporting sanctioned liquefied natural gas.
Over the past year, Russia has increased the size of its "shadow fleet" of gas carriers used to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 plant and its associated infrastructure. According to According to Bloomberg analysts, the number of such vessels has almost doubled, from 11 tankers in December 2025 to at least 20 units today.
The structure of the "shadow fleet" and new ships
An analysis of vessel traffic shows that the majority of tankers in operation are owned by companies with opaque ownership structures. This is a characteristic feature of a "shadow fleet" used to circumvent international sanctions.
In particular, the latest addition to the fleet was the icebreaker-class tanker Konstantin Posyet, построенный at the Zvezda shipyard in the Far East. This is the second such vessel, after the gas carrier Alexey Kosygin, capable of navigating Arctic waters year-round. The tanker recently fixed during the loading of a batch of more than 70 thousand tons of LNG at the Arctic LNG 2 plant.
Sanctions, buyers, and construction delays
As a reminder, NOVATEK's Arctic LNG 2 project was subject to US sanctions in 2023. The restrictions were intended to completely block exports, but Russia continues to increase liquefied gas shipments using vessels without transparent registration or insurance. Currently, China remains the only buyer of this gas.
At the same time, official Washington has not yet introduced new secondary restrictions against the expanding “shadow fleet” of gas carriers and is not applying sanctions to Chinese buyers.
Consequently, the issue of transporting and building new ships remains a key one. Today, September 2, Vladimir Putin visited the Zvezda shipyard as part of the Eastern Economic Forum, where he once again demonstratedand the icebreaker gas carrier Pyotr Stolypin. This tanker was launched during a similar presidential visit in September 2023 and was scheduled to be commissioned later that year, but has not yet been delivered to the customer.
