Tanker with sanctioned Russian LNG did not enter Germany: gas carrier went to Belgium

The Coral Nordic tanker with a batch of LNG from the Cryogaz Vysotsk plant indicated the German port as the final point of arrival, but left for Belgium. The Russian project has come under US sanctions, but continues to ship liquefied gas. The US Treasury has provided a transition period until the end of February.

The Coral Nordic tanker has changed its final destination and is no longer heading to the German Kiel, but to the Belgian Zeebrugge. This is evidenced by the AIS data of the courts. As EADaily reported, the gas carrier loaded up to 18 million cubic meters of gas in the form of LNG at the Cryogaz Vysotsk medium-tonnage Baltic plant and indicated Germany as the point of arrival. At the other end of the Kiel Canal is the state LNG terminal in Brunsbuttel.

Earlier, in November, the terminal was preparing to receive Yamal LNG cargo on the Fedor Litke tanker. However, the German government has banned the unloading of Russian liquefied gas.

According to AIS ships, Coral Nordic will deliver cargo to Zeebrugge today, January 20. On Monday morning, the gas carrier was already approaching the anchorage.

Cargo delivery takes place against the backdrop of US sanctions imposed by the US Treasury on Cryogaz Vysotsk and another LNG complex, Portovaya, on January 10. Nevertheless, the delivery from Cryogaz Vysotsk, which belongs to Novatek and Gazprombank, continues. Tankers of the Dutch company Anthony Veder do not stop working on the route.

Coral Fungia delivered the cargo to Coral Nordic in Zeebrugge. According to AIS ships, the tanker again went to Vysotsk, where he should arrive on January 23.

The project with a capacity of about 700 thousand tons (more than 900 million cubic meters) per year, obviously, also fell under the transition period of the US Treasury, which is valid until the end of February.

In the port of Zeebrugge, Russian LNG can both be shipped to European customers and reloaded onto other tankers for further delivery to Asia. Novatek uses the terminal to optimize supplies, and this opportunity will last until March, when the EU ban on transshipment of LNG from Russia in the ports of the European Union.

The total capacity of the two Baltic projects of Russian LNG, which fell under the latest sanctions, is 2.2 million tons per year. This is about 6% of the total export of Russian LNG. Earlier, in November 2023, the United States imposed sanctions on the Arctic LNG—2 Arctic project under construction with a capacity of about 20 million tons. Washington has stated that they want to kill all new LNG projects in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that sanctions will increase costs, but will not stop the export of liquefied natural gas. The government plans that by 2030 deliveries from Russia will grow almost threefold — up to 100 million tons per year.