Alleged Russian Funding Prompts Executive Exodus at U.S. LNG Firm

The top executives of U.S. energy startup Polar LNG have all resigned in recent weeks, just six months after the company was launched, amid a controversy over alleged funding and control of the venture’s strategy by Russia’s biggest LNG developer and exporter, privately-held Novatek.The senior managers who left Polar LNG say they resigned in September after learning earlier during the month that Novatek was at least partly funding the U.S. company, which looks to build a project on Alaska’s North Slope.Polar LNG was created in March 2026, pitching its proposed North Slope location as offering “one of the shortest shipping routes from North America to key Asian markets” to expand U.S. LNG exports to Asia.Polar LNG also specifically said it “is not in competition with the proposed Alaska LNG pipeline. The North Slope contains far more gas than any single project can develop, and success depends on advancing multiple efforts in parallel.”Polar LNG touted its investment proposition as a project that would use a modular gravity-based structure (GBS) to process and liquefy the gas directly at the source to accelerate construction and lower costs. The startup plans to buy an unfinished GBS from Novatek and has applied to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to be authorized to do so.U.S. authorization hasn’t been granted yet.However, the former Polar LNG employees say they are concerned about potential violations of the U.S. sanctions on Russia. While the U.S. has not sanctioned Novatek, it blacklisted in 2023 Novatek’s Arctic LNG-2 project whose expansion has since stalled.Joel Riddle, who resigned as CEO of Polar LNG in September, told the Financial Times last week that he discovered Novatek was actually calling the shots and providing capital to the project without approval from the Treasury’s OFAC or other agencies of the U.S. Administration. “I resigned as chief executive of Polar LNG because I felt uncomfortable that the Russian company Novatek was financing and ultimately controlling the strategic direction of the company,” Riddle told FT.Furthermore, two former Polar LNG executives told The Wall Street Journal this weekend that senior executives at the company had shared concerns about Novatek’s role with the Administration in early September and that government officials had also expressed concern.Abu Dhabi-based TechWave, an engineering firm, has provided capital to Polar LNG.Bjorn Gundersen, a former executive at Novatek, is now at TechWave, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Journal.During discussions about new funding for the U.S. project this summer, Riddle found out that Novatek was already financing Polar LNG and directing its operations before U.S. approvals were obtained.Polar LNG last week issued a statement referring to the leadership change following “concerns regarding a disgruntled former employee, Joel Riddle.”“Riddle was recently terminated from the company for cause. The company is investigating claims concerning Riddle that may result in litigation. To preserve the integrity of that process, the company will not comment further on the matters under discussion and asks other parties to exercise similar restraint,” Polar LNG said.It added that “TechWave has provided financing to Polar LNG and initiated preliminary engineering work involving U.S. contractors. The project is seeking American investors and implementation partners.”“Development activities are being pursued in full compliance with applicable U.S. laws,” said the U.S. start-up, which has submitted an application to OFAC “for a license authorizing the proposed purchase of an unfinished GBS from privately-owned Russian private company NOVATEK.”There has been no progress in securing a license, various sources tell the Journal.The alleged Russian funding and the potential sanctions threat could derail the Polar LNG project, which currently targets beginning natural gas deliveries “by the end of 2030, subject to securing necessary permits, financing, engineering and other development requirements.”By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.comMore Top Reads From Oilprice.comIEA’s Birol: Energy Prices Won’t Return to Pre-War Levels in 2027India’s BPCL to Cut Russian Oil Imports Due to Higher PricesRussian Refiners Ramp Up Diesel Output to Supply Trump Deal