Russian gas in Alaska? The Polar LNG project faces claims of hidden ties to Novatek

A former Polar LNG chief says Novatek secretly funded the Alaska LNG plant. The companies deny it; the project seeks a US Treasury licence.

Kurs Media editorial team28 October 2026, 16:19

A drilling rig at the Alpine oil field, North Slope, Alaska. Photo: Paxson Woelber, CC BY 2.0

On Alaska's North Slope, near some of the largest oil and gas fields in the United States, including Prudhoe Bay, Polar Train LNG plans to build the Polar LNG liquefied natural gas plant. Planned capacity is up to 21 million tonnes a year across three trains. The first phase, a single train, is preliminarily estimated at $8–9 billion, with first deliveries targeted for the end of 2030, subject to permits, financing and design work. No resource base has been publicly named.

On 23 and 24 October The New York Times and the Financial Times reported on the project. Both relied largely on Dan Riddle, who ran Polar Train LNG from March 2026. According to the FT, he resigned in September, and most of the senior team left with him. Riddle says he was misled about the source of funding: the money formally came from a company registered in the United Arab Emirates, but he believes the real investor was Novatek, which he says secretly controlled the project and intended to use technology from its Arctic LNG 2 plant in Alaska.

The NYT reported that Novatek may have provided up to $15 million to TechWave, an Abu Dhabi company financing Polar LNG, in exchange for minority-shareholder status. The FT cited messages that allegedly discussed Novatek funding and reported that Polar LNG came up in high-level talks between Russia and the United States, where Novatek's expertise for Alaska might be linked to lifting US sanctions on Arctic LNG 2. None of these claims has been officially confirmed.

The technology link, however, is public. Arctic LNG 2's liquefaction trains sit on gravity-based structures, huge concrete platforms that Novatek built at its yard in Murmansk region. Two were completed; work on a third stalled after US sanctions. Polar LNG also plans to place its trains on such structures and has applied to the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for a licence to buy the unfinished structure from Novatek.

Novatek rejects the idea that access to its technology depends on sanctions relief and calls the use of its technology in Alaska an independent project. The company says it allowed TechWave to use its technology and in April, while Riddle still ran Polar Train LNG, signed a memorandum with it. Novatek stresses that both US and Russian approvals are required. TechWave says Novatek holds no stake in it and that its investor, Bjørn Gundersen, put his own and borrowed money into Polar LNG.

Polar LNG says Riddle was dismissed for good reason and is now airing grievances. The company is conducting an internal investigation and does not rule out legal action. An interim chief executive was appointed on 23 October, and the company says work continues: US contractors are doing preparatory work, summer field work is complete, and it is seeking US investors.

For the gas market the story matters in several ways. Sanctions on Arctic LNG 2 have frozen not only the project but also the trade in its equipment: the unfinished gravity-based structure can now go to a buyer only with Washington's permission. OFAC's decision on Polar LNG's application will show whether US authorities are prepared to allow Russian technology in American LNG. For Novatek, selling the structure would recover part of its investment in a halted build. For Polar LNG, it would cut the cost and time of the first phase, though competition for LNG buyers by 2030 will be intense as new capacity comes online worldwide. The reports appeared days before the US midterm elections on 3 November, and political pressure around the project is likely to grow.

Neither the OFAC decision nor the results of Polar LNG's internal investigation have been announced. We will update this article.