[Regnum] For over two years, Western countries have been trying to assess the size of Russia's "shadow fleet" used to export energy resources. In 2023, the European Union became the largest buyer of Russian liquefied gas, paying over €6 billion for it, RIA Novosti reported.
French Minister for Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention Agnès Pannier-Runacher said that the highest level of transparency in the supply chain is needed to eliminate Europe's growing dependence on Russian gas.
According to Bloomberg, Russia is “using a network of shell companies” from Dubai to China to transport gas from the Arctic LNG 2 plant. The publication said that the opaque ownership structure is a typical feature of a shadow fleet. Novatek rejected this claim, emphasizing that it does not engage in such activities.
"It is completely unclear how this is possible. There is no bank of gas samples, and it is difficult to track the movement of tankers. However, in any case, the tougher the sanctions, the more expensive hydrocarbons are for Europe," admitted independent industrial expert Leonid Khazanov.
According to Pavel Maryshev, a member of the expert council at the Russian Gas Society, the existence of a “shadow fleet” is needed by someone, first and foremost by those who speak out loudest against Moscow.
As reported by Regnum, Politico learned about the EU's plans to impose sanctions against Russian LNG. According to journalists, in January 2025, EU countries will begin actively developing a new 15th package. For now, Hungary is significantly slowing down discussions of this kind, since it chairs the EU Council. Then the presidency will pass to Poland, which is much more negatively disposed towards Russia, which will speed up the process of adopting new sanctions, the article noted. At the same time, there is currently an increase in the volume of purchases of Russian LNG by European countries, it may even exceed the figures for 2023, despite the 14th package of sanctions, which was aimed precisely at reducing the volume of Russian energy exports.
Russia, expecting the West to tighten sanctions on liquefied natural gas supplies, is increasing its "shadow fleet", the British newspaper The Financial Times wrote in July. It was specified that the situation with sanctions against Russian LNG is ambiguous, since the EU, fearing a global market failure and a sharp shortage of gas in gas storage facilities, did not introduce a complete ban on gas from Russia.