China is building a second liquefied gas import terminal intended to handle shipments from Arctic Lng 2, a large project in the Siberian Arctic – with a production capacity of nearly twenty million tons per year – on which Russia has heavily invested: it was developed by the Russian company Novatek and is subject to sanctions.
THE LNG TRADE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA
Given the sanctions, no country in the Western bloc – and beyond – has so far imported gas from Arctic Lng 2. The only known buyer is China, which is even preparing to expand trade through a new terminal: the facility in question is called Longkou, located in the city of Yantai (in the eastern part of the country) and managed by the state-owned oil infrastructure company PipeChina.
Currently, gas trade between Arctic Lng 2 and China takes place exclusively through the Beihai terminal, also managed by PipeChina: the first shipment from the Russian plant arrived here in August 2025, transported by the Russian LNG carrier Arctic Mulan. Since then, the Beihai terminal has received forty-one shipments from Arctic Lng 2, equivalent to 2.6 million tons of liquefied gas.
China is the largest importer of liquefied gas globally and a major buyer of Russian gas: last year it purchased 7.5 million tons. To encourage Chinese purchases and offset risks related to sanctions, Novatek has also cut shipment prices by 30-40 percent, Reuters reported.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE NEW LONGKOU TERMINAL IN CHINA
The Longkou terminal is expected to be ready by October, in time for the winter months when heating demand increases. The facility benefits from being close to the floating regasification unit Koryak (in the Russian Far East, where Arctic Lng 2 shipments are handled). It will have an initial receiving capacity of five million tons of liquefied gas, slightly less than the Beihai terminal’s six million tons capacity.
AND WHAT ABOUT POWER OF SIBERIA 2?
In stalemate are the negotiations between Moscow and Beijing on Power of Siberia 2, a new pipeline between the two countries that has been discussed for years amid great difficulties.
Russia is interested in building the pipeline as it ideally wants to replace the European gas market with the Chinese one; the state company Gazprom has even promised very competitive prices. However, China wants to avoid developing an energy dependence on Moscow: a pipeline is a binding infrastructure (in the case of Power of Siberia 2, the fuel comes from Western Siberian fields), unlike a regasification terminal which can receive shipments from various origins.
According to Gazprom, Power of Siberia 2 will reach China via Mongolia and transport up to fifty billion cubic meters of gas per year, which is more than 10 percent of China’s total demand. In the long term, Russia aims to export over one hundred billion cubic meters of gas annually to China by pipeline; in 2025, flows amounted to about forty billion cubic meters.
