Russian officials and Novatek executives have been building a shadow fleet for Arctic LNG-2 and looking for customers for about six months. Representatives of companies sanctioned by oligarch Leonid Michelson made a lot of efforts to sign contracts in China and other Asian countries.
Massive discounts on LNG are pointless
To convince buyers to accept sanctioned cargo, Russia is ready to provide up to 40 percent. discount, Bloomberg found. However, this attempt failed. There is a lot of LNG in the world, and even countries friendly to Russia so far have no intention of risking being hit by American restrictions.
– We will not buy gas from Arctic LNG-2. We do not buy sanctioned items. “We are not touching on what has been subject to extensive sanctions,” said Pankaj Jain, India’s oil minister, quoted by Reuters, Friday.
Russian factories were hit by US sanctions at the end of last year and as a result were unable to start exporting. In August, Novatek attempted to export LNG, but the United States quickly imposed sanctions on nine gas carriers linked to Arctic LNG-2.
