Intelligence officials said that Russia is accelerating the creation of an LNG “shadow fleet”
Kyiv • UNN
Russia is buying up old LNG carriers and building new ones to circumvent the EU embargo on LNG imports. The fleet has grown to 25 vessels, but experts doubt its effectiveness.
Russia is accelerating the creation of a "shadow fleet" to transport liquefied natural gas, preparing for the European Union's total ban on imports of Russian LNG, which will take effect on January 1, 2027. The Kremlin is buying up old gas carriers on the secondary market and commissioning the first vessels of its own production, UNN reports, citing the Foreign Intelligence Service.
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According to intelligence officials, more than 65% of Russia's LNG production comes from Novatek's projects — Yamal LNG and the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 — while another approximately 30% is supplied by Gazprom's Sakhalin-2. China remains the main buyer of Arctic LNG 2 products: according to experts' estimates, the cargoes are transported by 11 vessels with an average age of about ten years.
Unlike the oil "shadow fleet," which numbers more than a thousand vessels, building an LNG equivalent is considerably more difficult because of the high technological complexity of cryogenic gas carriers capable of keeping gas in a liquid state at a temperature of approximately –162 °C. Constructing a modern tanker costs up to $300 million, so Moscow is instead buying vessels more than 19 years old, which global shipping companies are already taking out of service.
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Over the past six months, the fleet has been expanded by at least eight used gas carriers and two new vessels from the Zvezda shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen (Primorsky Krai). Most are registered to Russia-linked companies from Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Overall, in 2026 the number of LNG tankers in the "shadow fleet" grew to 25 vessels — among the identified ships are Kosmos, Orion, Merkuriy, Luch, Arctic Express, Avacha and Chaivo, as well as the new Aleksey Kosygin and Konstantin Posiet.
Intelligence officials add that four more gas carriers are being built at the Zvezda shipyard, but sanctions are hindering the industry's development: six completed Arc7 ice-class gas carriers for the Kremlin's Arctic projects have been blocked at South Korea's Hanwha Ocean.
The "shadow fleet" will allow Russia to mitigate the consequences of the EU ban only partially. A full redirection of supplies to Asia will be hindered by a shortage of suitable vessels, the seasonality of Arctic navigation and a deficit of ice-class gas carriers. After the full embargo is introduced, Novatek risks accumulating unsold products, reducing production or selling LNG at significant discounts — but this will only strengthen the negotiating positions of China and other Asian buyers