MOSCOW, April 1 (Reuters) - Russia's exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the first three months of the year declined by 1.2% from a year earlier to 8.1 million metric tons, LSEG preliminary data showed on Tuesday, amid sanctions.
Russia has struggled to raise LNG exports in the face of U.S. restrictions over its invasion of Ukraine. Its new Arctic LNG 2 plant has been effectively frozen because it was unable to find buyers owing to Western sanctions.
Two sources said that Arctic LNG 2 has resumed processing last month albeit at a slow rate.
In March alone, Russia's LNG exports rose by 3.7% to 2.8 million tons from 2.7 million tons in the same month a year ago, according to LSEG data.
Russia's LNG exports to Europe in January-March declined 12.5% year on year to 4.2 million tons, while supplies in March in this direction fell by 16.5% to 1.37 million tons, as sanctions on transhipment took effect last month.
Novatek's Yamal LNG plant raised total exports in March by 3.6% year on year to 1.75 million tons. In the first quarter, supplies from the plant edged up to 5 million tons from 4.9 million tons in the same period in 2024.
Sakhalin-2, controlled by Gazprom, bao tay ninh exported 900,000 tons from the Pacific island in March, up 12.5% from the same month in 2024. Exports from the project rose to 2.7 million tons year-to-date from 2.6 million in the first quarter 2024.
Gazprom's small-scale Portovaya LNG on the shores of the Baltic Sea was put under U.S. sanctions in January. It loaded an LNG cargo to floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Marshal Vasilevskiy last month.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants the EU to buy more U.S. LNG and that he will make more of it available. (Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by David Evans)