Blocking a tanker in Argentina: what will happen to Russian LNG

Marcel Salikhov, President of the Institute for Energy and Finance commented to finance.mail.ru on Argentina's refusal to accept Russian LNG.

"I don't think this will have a significant impact on Novatek's financial performance and the dynamics of its shares. Currently, there are no sanctions at the EU level against Russian LNG and Novatek in particular," Marcel Salikhov explained.

"Since the beginning of 2023, Yamal LNG has shipped 10 million tons of LNG, the main buyers are just European countries (primarily Belgium, France, Spain)," the economist added.

"Novatek does not supply LNG directly from Yamal LNG, we are talking only about individual shipments through European ports. Argentina is a fairly small LNG market. In 2022, Argentina imported 1.5 million tons of LNG, 70% of which were supplied from the United States and individual shipments from Qatar, Equatorial Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago," the expert noted.

According to Marcel Salikhov, these restrictions do not play a significant role. Most likely, the cargo of the Flex Artemis vessel, which was not unloaded in Argentina, will be resold and delivered to another port in South America. Previously, this vessel was mainly engaged in the supply of LNG from the United States to Europe and from Oman to India.