Yes, Russian LNG flows to China still exist. That much is true. The real question is whether they belong to the “this will bring a smile to your face” category. I very much doubt it—and distance alone should already wipe that smile off.
North-Western European LNG receiving terminals sit roughly 4,500 kilometers away from Sabetta. Chinese terminals are almost three times that distance. And that distance is not traversed through friendly, open seas, but largely through Arctic waters—waters that cannot be navigated by standard LNG carriers. This alone changes the economics fundamentally.
Russian LNG projects are therefore heading straight into a vessel bottleneck. First, because the overall LNG fleet is too small to begin with. Second, because the number of ice-class LNG carriers is smaller still—and those ships are not just rare, they are brutally expensive to build, own, insure, and operate. Add to this that China has a long and well-earned reputation for extracting excellent deals from the misfortune of others, and you already have the basic contours of the problem.
The simple truth—unfashionable as it may be—is that Western markets are, for Russia and for anyone else, largely irreplaceable. Nobody pays those prices. And even those who can tolerate high prices for a while cannot do so for long. Sooner or later, either the project or the country itself has to swallow the loss.
Now ask yourself: how long can that last for a country already on the ropes thanks to a little adventure in a neighboring state?
Which means what we actually get is not a triumphant pivot to the East, but more propaganda, more hype, and more carefully staged narratives. These are then dumped onto a population that already seems incapable of resisting an endless stream of TikTok reels shoved down its throat. The result is entirely predictable: another round of brainless debates about how a bold new alliance is forming, one that will allegedly remake the world’s economic order.
Pathetic.
https://energynewsbeat.co/russia-lng-exports-to-china-flow-despite-sanctions/