Russia’s Arctic gas ambitions are under threat as international sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine jeopardise deliveries of the specialised vessels needed to ship the fuel from its vast projects in the frozen north.
Construction of its fleet of next-generation icebreakers depends on foreign companies, from Korean shipbuilders to US and Finnish marine engineers, along with a little-known French business with a monopoly over technology vital to transporting liquefied natural gas.
With international shipyards’ Russian partners and customers on sanctions lists, and the EU banning exports of vessels, marine systems or equipment to Russia for most purposes, the orders are now in doubt.
“We don’t see how under these circumstances the [shipbuilding] projects can progress,” said Panayiotis Mitrou, global gas segment manager at ship classification society Lloyd’s Register. “All angles seem to be doomed.”
At stake are Russia’s hopes to ramp up exports from some of the planet’s richest gasfields. Moscow also aims to start year-round cargo shipments along the “Northern Sea Route”, which connects East Asia with Europe via the Bering
Strait between Russia and Alaska, within the next couple of years.
South Korean ships are indispensable for Russia’s Arctic LNG exports Southern route