Former Polar LNG executives say they quit over Novatek funding

Treasury has not approved Polar’s purchase from sanctioned Arctic LNG 2

Former American executives at Polar LNG said they left the energy startup after learning that Russian gas company Novatek financed the company and controlled its strategic direction. Joel Riddle, Polar’s CEO until September and a former ExxonMobil employee, said he resigned after the role emerged in budget discussions over the summer. Other executives left with Riddle.

Polar launched in March with a long-shot plan to liquefy natural gas from beneath Alaska’s North Slope and export it. The startup sought a Treasury Department license to import a half-finished piece of equipment from Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 business. The structure was as tall as the Statue of Liberty and suitable for frigid conditions, but it had fallen under sanctions during the Biden administration in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Former executives said the sanctions made the equipment available at a knockdown price, sparing Polar from building its own. The company hoped to find favor with the Trump administration’s goal of “energy dominance” for America.

Former executives also said Novatek was running and at least partly funding Polar. Riddle said the discovery emerged during budget discussions over the summer and prompted his resignation.

“I felt uncomfortable that the Russian company Novatek was financing and ultimately controlling the strategic direction of the company,” Riddle said.

Tech Wave, an engineering firm in Abu Dhabi, owned Polar and provided most of its capital. During discussions over new funding during the summer, Riddle said senior Novatek executives were directing the company’s strategy and allocating capital. Bjorn Gundersen, a Norwegian Novatek executive credited with developing the technology used at Arctic LNG 2, had left for Tech Wave, according to people familiar with the matter. Gundersen did not respond to a request for comment.

The Financial Times and the New York Times had earlier reported the executive departures and allegations about Russian funding.

Two former Polar executives said high-ranking company officials shared concerns about Novatek’s role with the administration around early September, and government officials expressed concern. Polar executives lobbied the White House and Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council to secure Treasury approval, according to people familiar with their efforts. As of last month, those people and Riddle’s resignation letter indicated no signs the effort had momentum.

Polar needed Treasury approval to buy infrastructure from Arctic LNG 2, a sanctioned Novatek entity, and had not received the go-ahead. Novatek did not respond to a request for comment. The White House, Treasury Department and State Department did not return calls for comment.

Novatek itself is not sanctioned by the U.S., although Arctic LNG 2 is, and Europe has continued to buy the company’s LNG since the invasion of Ukraine. Novatek has maintained a presence in the United States and European capitals during the war and paid lobbyists and law firms to try to influence sanctions and energy policy.

Around the same time, the sanctions bill named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham was moving through Congress and threatened to make it even harder for Polar to obtain permission to transact with Novatek.

Russia 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 Arctic LNG 2 in 2023 when the Biden administration sanctioned the project, preventing it from importing parts from overseas.

Polar still faced a difficult logistics problem. The equipment would have to travel from Russia by tugboat, and the company would need to build on the North Slope, dredge enormous amounts of seabed and secure icebreaker tankers to chart Arctic routes. Monetizing gas beneath Alaska has long been an ambition of American energy executives, but the resource remains underdeveloped because moving it through a domestic pipeline, liquefying it and shipping it internationally would each be costly and logistically daunting.

Polar’s licensing effort remained unresolved: the startup had not received Treasury approval, Novatek had not answered the executives’ allegations, and the White House, Treasury Department and State Department had not responded to requests for comment.