The UK government has followed the US in sanctioning Russia’s upcoming new liquefaction project Arctic LNG 2 two years on from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a list published today, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office named Russian energy company Novatek’s 19.8 million tonnes per annum Arctic LNG 2 project as one of its newly sanctioned entities. It said: “This is one of the key links in Putin’s plan to make Russia a major LNG player.”
The liquefaction project’s director, Oleg Vyacheslavovich Karpushin, was also named as a sanctioned individual.
Along with Karpushin, the UK has also opted to sanction six of Novatek’s directors. These are listed as Lev Vladimirovich Feodosyev, Valery Anatolyevich Kryukov, Viktor Gennadiyevich Nesterenko, Alexei Vitalyevich Orel, Irina Vernerovna Gaida and Alexander Yegorovich Natalenko.
The UK, which, unlike Europe, no longer imports Russian LNG, described Arctic LNG 2 as “a vital asset to Russia’s future as an energy superpower”.
The US has already moved on Arctic LNG 2, sanctioning the project in November.
Arctic LNG 2 was originally scheduled to export a first cargo at the end of 2023, but Novatek recently indicated it was aiming to send out a shipment in March.
In September, the US, which is due to publish a fresh round of sanctions against Russia, also imposed sanctions on the two giant LNG floating storage units — the 361,600-cbm Saam FSU and Koryak FSU — which were put into place in Ura Bay off Murmansk and Bechevinskaya Bay off Kamchatka Peninsula, at either end of the Northern Sea Route.
The latest UK sanctions are part of a package of more than 50 announced on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
UK foreign secretary David Cameron had also threatened a fresh round of measures against Russia in reaction to the death in custody of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on 16 February.
The bulk of them were targeted at defence contractors but they also included electronics companies, diamond and oil traders and shipping companies.
The UK has sanctioned 2,000 individuals, companies and groups under its Russia sanctions regime alone.
