A group of American executives has quit an energy startup that aspired to liquefy and export natural gas out of Alaska, alleging they recently learned it was secretly being funded by Russian gas giant Novatek.
Polar LNG, the startup, was launched in March with what seemed like a long-shot goal. The U.S. company wanted to get a license to import a half-finished piece of equipment from the Russian company, with the goal of exporting a geyser of gas from beneath Alaska’s North Slope.
The massive structure—as tall as the Statue of Liberty and suitable for frigid conditions—had fallen under sanctions during the Biden administration in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. But Polar hoped its project would find favor with the Trump administration’s goal of “energy dominance” for America.
The sanctions also meant the equipment was available at a knockdown price, people involved in the project said. Securing it would mean Polar wouldn’t have to build its own from scratch.
Then the plans hit a snag: It turned out the project was being run and at least partly funded by Russian energy company Novatek, former Polar executives said. Joel Riddle, Polar’s CEO until September and a former ExxonMobil employee, says he resigned after the discovery, which he said emerged in budget discussions over the summer.
“I felt uncomfortable that the Russian company Novatek was financing and ultimately controlling the strategic direction of the company,” Riddle said.
Other executives left with Riddle. Their departures and the alleged Russian funding were earlier reported by the Financial Times and the New York Times.
Novatek didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House, the Treasury Department and the State Department didn’t return calls for comment.
Novatek isn’t sanctioned by the U.S., and Europe has continued to buy its LNG since the invasion of Ukraine. Unlike many other Russian companies, Novatek has continued to have a presence in the U.S. and in European capitals during the war, paying lobbyists and elite law firms to try to influence sanctions and energy policy.
Polar’s project required convincing the Treasury Department to give it a license to buy the infrastructure from a sanctioned entity, Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 business. It hasn’t received the go-ahead.
Two former Polar executives said high-ranking officials at the company shared concerns about Novatek’s role with the administration around early September and that government officials expressed concern.
Polar would have to import the gear from Russia by tugboat. Then, there was the issue of building the project on Alaska’s North Slope, dredging an enormous amount of seabed and securing icebreaker tankers to chart paths in the Arctic.
Monetizing the gas beneath Alaska has been a long-held ambition of many American energy executives. But the gas remains underdeveloped because shuttling it to domestic markets via pipeline would be costly and logistically daunting, as would liquefying it and shipping it internationally from where it is produced.
Russia, meanwhile, has poured resources into liquefied natural gas, and Novatek emerged as its national champion. The company is one of the few major energy producers that remain in private hands after a quarter-century of rule by President Vladimir Putin.
Novatek was partway through building a new export facility named Arctic LNG 2 in 2023 when the Biden administration sanctioned the project. The sanctions threw sand in the gears, stopping the project from importing parts from overseas.
A Norwegian executive at Novatek named Bjorn Gundersen, who is credited with having developed the technology used at Arctic LNG 2, left for Tech Wave, an engineering firm in Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with the matter.
Tech Wave owned Polar and provided most of Polar’s capital. But in discussions over new, much-needed funding over the summer, it became clear that senior Novatek executives were really calling the shots and allocating capital, Riddle said.
Gundersen didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Around the same time, the sanctions bill named after late Sen. Lindsey Graham was making its way through Congress and threatened to make it even harder for Polar to get permission to transact with Novatek.
Polar executives had lobbied the White House and President Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council to get the go-ahead from the Treasury Department, said people familiar with their efforts. As of last month, there weren’t signs the efforts had momentum, according to the people and Riddle’s resignation letter, which The Wall Street Journal reviewed.
Write to Joe Wallace at joe.wallace@wsj.com, Benoît Morenne at benoit.morenne@wsj.com and Costas Paris at costas.paris@wsj.com
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