Russia Doubles Dark Fleet to Ship LNG to Asia

AI Summary

Russia has doubled its fleet of opaque-owned LNG carriers utilized to ship liquefied natural gas from the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 export project. The increase includes a second ice-class vessel capable of year-round Arctic navigation, expanding Russia's LNG shipping capacity despite sanctions.

In just nine months, Russia has doubled the number of opaque-owned vessels that it uses to ship liquefied natural gas from its sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 export project, a Bloomberg analysis of vessel-tracking data showed on Tuesday. As of December 2025, Russia was estimated to have 11 LNG carriers in its dark fleet. Now the number has jumped to at least 20, including the second ice-class vessel that is capable of moving through Arctic waters throughout the whole year, according to Bloomberg’s analysis. Since Arctic LNG 2 was sanctioned by the…