Russia Doubles Dark Fleet to Ship LNG to Asia

Summary

Russia has doubled its 'dark fleet' of LNG carriers to at least 20 vessels in nine months to circumvent Western sanctions on its Arctic LNG 2 project. This expansion is a strategic effort to redirect gas flows from Europe, which is phasing out Russian LNG, to Asian markets, primarily China. This reliance on a single major buyer, however, gives China significant pricing leverage over Moscow.