From Alaska With Love: Russia’s Shadow LNG Fleet Set Sail for China As Trump-Putin Summit Unfolded

Five sanctioned LNG carriers, part of Russia’s shadow fleet, got underway as the Trump-Putin meeting took place in Alaska, or changed course in the hours that followed.

The vessels had remained idle for extended periods of time, loaded with stranded liquefied natural gas from Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment if Presidents Trump and Putin discussed the matter of Russian LNG during their meeting in Anchorage. Reuters reported earlier that the US has had internal discussions ahead of the summit about using Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers in support of the planned $44bn Alaska LNG project.

“LNG carriers Iris, Zarya, and Voskhod all synchronously lifted their anchors to head to Asia, […] hoping for sanction-liberated buyers,” said Kjell Eikland, managing director of data provider Eikland Energy, in a public Linkedin post. 

AIS records show Iris, Zarya, and Voskhod getting underway around 90 minutes into the Alaska sit-down meeting. All three vessels are currently heading east toward Asia along Russia’s main Arctic shipping lane.

“I can confirm it. It happened while they were still in talks because the movements took place at 21:00 UTC,” said Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, a research and maritime intelligence company.

The direct talks between Presidents Trump and Putin concluded with a brief press meeting at 21:45 UTC ahead of a press conference at 22:55 UTC. The Kremlin confirmed that talks had ended at 22:22 UTC.

Two additional sanctioned LNG carriers, Arctic Mulan and Arctic Vostok (recently renamed from East Energy), already located in Asia also set sail or changed course in the hours following the Alaska summit. All five LNG tankers are flying the Russian flag.

According to daily traffic logs published by Russia’s Northern Sea Route Administration, at least one vessel is headed to China. The listing shows Voskhod’s destination as the Beihai import and regasification terminal operated by PipeChina in southern China.

Several industry analysts called the spike in activity “remarkable” and speculated about a connection between the vessel’s sudden movements and the Alaska summit. 

“Quite something to see all Arctic LNG 2 carriers suddenly on the move,” one expert remarked.

During the Biden Administration, the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources spearheaded efforts to block the opening of the 20mtpa Arctic LNG 2 plant across several rounds of sanctions. Novatek, the project’s majority owner, managed to load eight cargoes from August 2024, but failing to find buyers temporarily shuttered the plant months later. 

Around a million cubic meters of LNG remained stranded aboard a half dozen vessels and floating storage barges last winter. In recent weeks the company resumed production at the facility completing four additional loadings. Loaded vessels idled for weeks, and in some cases many months, in the Bering Sea and Ob Bay as well as off the coasts of Russia and China.

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