The Financial Times, citing data from analytics firm Windward and market participants, reports that four newly acquired Russian gas carriers — the Kosmos, Orion, Merkuriy, and Luch — previously transported cargoes from LNG projects under Western sanctions. After a change of ownership, they were reflagged to Russia.
Analysts link the fleet expansion to preparations for the EU's full ban on Russian LNG imports, set to take effect in early 2027. The FT draws a parallel with the 'shadow fleet' of oil tankers Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions.
The shadow LNG fleet also includes the first two tankers built at Russia's Zvezda shipyard. The Arc7 ice-class gas carrier Aleksey Kosygin, delivered to Sovcomflot, is already carrying cargo from the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project. The second vessel, Konstantin Posyet, was launched in July.
Gas carriers are significantly more complex than oil tankers: their construction costs around $300 million, and LNG transport requires specialized cryogenic storage systems maintaining temperatures of about minus 162 degrees Celsius. The need for ice-class vessels to operate in Arctic fields compounds the challenge.
According to analysts, most shadow fleet tankers are registered to Russia-linked companies in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore and sail under flags of convenience. Like the shadow oil fleet, they use transponder shutdowns and ship-to-ship transfers to conceal the origin of their cargo.
The Insider reports that in December 2025, the Aleksey Kosygin — capable of breaking ice up to 2.1 meters thick and carrying over 172,000 cubic meters of LNG — was delivered to its customer. Experts from Arktida say the tanker could serve as an ice shuttle: loading LNG at the terminal and transferring it to conventional gas carriers bound for Asia. Transshipment via a floating storage unit allows sanctioned cargo to be handed to a tanker not formally on restrictive lists.
Experts interviewed by the Financial Times believe further fleet expansion could be hampered by sanctions on technology suppliers. French company GTT, which nearly monopolizes LNG containment systems for gas carriers, stopped working with Russian customers in 2023. Analysts say this may push Moscow to more actively buy second-hand vessels on the secondary market.