World
Kunpeng Drifts Off Singapore After India Refuses Its Cargo
India's petroleum ministry refused a UK-sanctioned LNG cargo in early May, rejecting a Portovaya shipment whose documents claimed non-Russian origin. China has absorbed at least 24 comparable deliveries from sanctioned Russian LNG facilities since August 2025.
India's petroleum ministry refused a UK-sanctioned Portovaya LNG cargo in early May, stranding the tanker Kunpeng and its 138,200 cubic metres off Singapore.
The Kunpeng flies Sierra Leone's flag, registered to Reveka Marine Ltd of the Marshall Islands, which Reuters could not reach for comment. Until late 2025, the vessel ran mainstream routes from Qatar and Australia to South Korea, before loading at Russia's Portovaya terminal on the Baltic in December 2025. Britain placed the hull on its own sanctions list on February 24, 2026, nine weeks after that first loading.
LSEG shipping data tracked the vessel heading for Petronet LNG's Dahej import terminal in Gujarat, but India's refusal came through diplomatic channels, not at the berth. Russia's Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin met Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi on April 30; Puri's office communicated India's position before the Kunpeng closed on Gujarat. By May 13, the vessel was anchored near Singapore with no destination broadcast.
Washington first sanctioned the Portovaya terminal in January 2025. A second OFAC round in January 2026 extended secondary-sanctions risk to any entity transacting with the facility. A temporary March 2026 waiver covered Indian crude purchases from Russia but offered no parallel relief for LNG.
China has absorbed at least 24 deliveries from sanctioned Russian LNG facilities (Arctic LNG 2 and Portovaya among them) since August 2025, taking cargoes at undisclosed discounts. India remains the largest foreign buyer of Russian seaborne crude but has drawn a harder line on gas.
The Kunpeng's stranding exposes two layers of naming India declined to ignore. Britain had placed this specific hull on its sanctions list in February; the US had named the Portovaya berth since January 2025. Cargo documents claiming non-Russian origin could not erase either designation from Puri's compliance ledger.
Sorokin returns in June. A concession at that meeting would set the price of the April 30 line.