UK shipping company helped Russia raise $3.2 billion in LNG trade revenue in 2025, campaigners say
Glasgow-based shipping company Seapeak led Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) exports from the Arctic Yamal LNG project last year, hauling shipments worth 2.3 billion pounds ($3.2 billion), NGO Urgewald said on Jan. 26.
According to the Germany-based research group's calculations, the revenues Seapeak helped raise are close to the estimated cost of 87,000 Shahed-type attack drones, regularly used for aerial strikes against Ukraine.
Gas and oil exports have played a crucial role in helping Russia fund its all-out war against Ukraine, which is soon to hit its fourth-year anniversary.
Seapeak's share of Yamal LNG's trade in 2025 amounted to 37.3%, more than any other company, according to Urgewald's analysis based on Kpler data.
This means that the Glasgow-based shipper has expanded its share of Yamal exports from 35.9% in 2024, even though its overall volumes of transported LNG dropped slightly in that period, according to a press release Urgewald sent to the Kyiv Independent.
The Kyiv Independent has reached out to Seapeak for comment.
The NGO's earlier analysis said that Yamal LNG exported a total of 7.2 billion euros ($8.4 billion) worth of LNG to European markets in 2025, accounting for nearly 15% of the EU's total global LNG imports.
Yamal LNG, a non-sanctioned venture based in northwestern Siberia on the Yamal Peninsula, represents Russia's chief LNG export route to Europe.
Seapeak operates six of the 15 Arc7 ice-class vessels built specifically for the Yamal LNG project, according to Urgewald.
"The British government should take action against these Arc7 ships immediately," said Sebastian Rotters, a sanctions campaigner at Urgewald, calling them the "backbone of Russia's Arctic LNG exports."
The news comes amid growing Western pressure against Russian LNG trade. The EU on Jan. 26 gave final approval to a decision to ban imports of LNG from Russia by early 2027, with pipeline gas imports to be prohibited later the same year.
"As Western companies like Seapeak continue to enable Yamal LNG, they do more than transport gas," said Svitlana Romanko, the founder and executive director of Razom We Stand.
"They help funnel money directly into Russia's budget," allowing Moscow to fund "brutal weapons of war used against Ukraine" amid freezing temperatures, she added.
