(Moscow) Russian giant Gazprom announced on Friday that it had delivered liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China for the first time via the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic, now more easily navigable due to melting ice. by global warming.

The Russian authorities hope that this route will make it possible to increase the transport of hydrocarbons to Asia, at a time when the Europeans, historical clients of Moscow, say they want to end their energy dependence on Russia.

“Gazprom delivered LNG from its own production for the first time along the Northern Sea Route,” the Russian state company welcomed in a press release.

According to Gazprom, the Velikii Novgorod LNG carrier, which departed from the Portovaïa LNG terminal in north-west Russia, finished unloading its cargo of liquefied natural gas at the LNG port of Tangshan in north-east China on Friday.

The private gas group Novatek, number two in the sector in Russia, had already delivered liquefied natural gas to China via the Northern Sea Route in the summer of 2018.

The use of this maritime route “allows us to significantly reduce the delivery time of LNG to Asia-Pacific countries,” Gazprom rejoiced on Friday.

The Russian gas giant, pillar of the national economy, has been looking for ways to continue exporting its gas and LNG around the world since last year, after almost losing the European market due to sanctions in retaliation for the offensive. Russian in Ukraine.

But the sharp drop in its gas deliveries to Europe and the intrinsic difficulty in quickly redirecting its exports to Asia – due to the costs and significant delays in building new infrastructure – are weighing at this stage on the results of Gazprom.

Over the first six months of 2023, the company saw its net profit fall to 2.84 billion euros, eight times less than over the same period in 2022.

On the Northern Sea Route, Russia would ultimately like to capture part of the international trade in its waters, particularly Chinese containers, but the infrastructure there still needs to be further developed. Not to mention that Moscow is confronted in this polar region with the ambitions of other powers.

To date, Russia is the only builder and operator of nuclear icebreakers in the world, but China has already indicated that it wants to build its fleet.