Two US sanctioned heavy lift vessels, Glory Ocean and Bright Ocean, have docked at Novatek's Belokamenka construction yard near Murmansk after a voyage of nearly two and a half months from eastern China. Satellite imagery from Planet Labs, obtained by geospatial firm Synmax and shared with gCaptain, shows the ships carrying topside modules for Arctic LNG 2's third production train, the clearest indication to date that work on the long stalled Train 3 could be restarting despite Western sanctions.
Glory Ocean is being offloaded directly alongside the unfinished GBS3 gravity based structure at Belokamenka, rather than into the yard's enclosed assembly hall. It carries the TMR-001 pipe rack module, the first topside piece designed to sit at the center of the platform. Sister vessel Bright Ocean, docked closer to the assembly hall, is carrying the TMR-002 module, which is meant to follow immediately in the installation sequence. Both ships were sanctioned by the United States in 2024 and previously moved modules for the project under earlier names, Nan Feng Zhi Xing and Hunter Star.
Assembly work at Belokamenka largely halted in July 2024 after sweeping US sanctions imposed in late 2023 disrupted financing, technology supplies, and shipping. Train 1 was mostly complete when sanctions tightened, Train 2 had to be redesigned, and Train 3 was left stranded as prefabricated modules sat at the former Wison Offshore fabrication yard in Zhoushan. Two additional pipe rack modules, TMR-003 and TMR-004, remain at that yard, which itself came under sanctions tied to Arctic LNG 2 and now operates under new ownership.
The arrivals coincide with fresh movement of another vessel linked to the program. The ice class heavy lift carrier Audax, purpose built to move oversized LNG modules into Arctic waters for both Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2, recently left the anchorage off Lianyungang where it had sat since June 2024 and entered Lianyungang Gangguanhe Port on July 10. Audax remains under US designation, though the European Union lifted its sanctions on Audax and sister ship Pugnax in October 2025 after their operator assured EU officials the vessels would no longer support Russia's LNG sector.
The deliveries do not confirm a full restart, and could still represent the relocation of finished equipment from Chinese yards to Russian storage. But installing TMR-001 and TMR-002 onto GBS3 would mark the first meaningful progress on Arctic LNG 2's third train in more than two years, and would signal that Novatek has found workable logistics around the measures that stalled the project. For LNG traders and Arctic shipping operators, a functioning Train 3 would add another slug of Russian volume to a market already reshaped by sanctioned barrels and rerouted flows.