Surveyors working on a project linked to Russian natural gas giant Novatek conducted surveys off Alaska’s sensitive North Slope in 2025 and this year.
asserted
Surveyors → work → 2025
An expert said such Russia-backed information gathering so close to U.S. shores could be seen as “a direct challenge to sovereignty and security.”
uncertain
gathering → say → sovereignty
The revelations about the surveys follow the resignation of a U.S. CEO who asserted it was a Russian ploy to gain control of Alaska’s natural gas reserves.
asserted
it → follow → reserves
To an outsider, the research boats bobbing in the frigid and stormy Beaufort Sea off Alaska would seem little cause for alarm.
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boats → bob → alarm
Oil and gas companies have regularly explored the area for decades.
asserted
companies → explore → decades
For this project, businessmen from the United Arab Emirates were touting a plan to tap the vast natural gas reserves that lay beneath the tundra of Alaska’s North Slope.
asserted
that → tout → Slope
They promised the operation would eventually be American-owned.
asserted
operation → promise → ?
No one could dispute Alaska’s dire energy needs — not to mention the potential for lucrative exports.
uncertain
one → dispute → exports
The surveyors last year used specialized equipment to map the depth and shape of the seabed, collect samples of shallow marine sediments and conduct sonar scans to check for obstructions such as shipwrecks.
asserted
surveyors → use → shipwrecks
Documents show that their work was not far, as the crow flies, from the start of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System — a cornerstone of U.S. energy production.
asserted
crow → show → production
An Air Force long-range radar station sat just to the west.
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station → sit → west
More than 100 miles off the coast, the Navy’s fast-attack nuclear submarines sometimes practiced surfacing through the thick Arctic ice.
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submarines → practice → ice
While the contractors performing the work were American, the UAE company paying for the surveys was actually being steered by Russia’s liquefied natural gas giant, Novatek — a company under partial U.S. sanctions, documents and interviews show.
asserted
documents → perform → sanctions
The proposal to create an LNG processing plant on Alaska’s coast has already put reams of scientific data about the strategically critical region within reach of Novatek’s leader, an oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin, a ProPublica investigation found.
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investigation → create → Putin
The Financial Times and The New York Times reported on the Russian ties to the venture last month.
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Times → report → venture
But the extent to which the company gathered detailed information about sensitive areas of Alaska has not been previously disclosed.
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company → gather → Alaska
Such information is highly valuable in the ever-changing and unpredictable Arctic, with its potential routes for both naval ships and missiles.
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information → change → ships
Norwegian security services and U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns this year about the danger of increased spy and sabotage operations by Russia in the Arctic.
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services → express → Arctic
Russia-backed information gathering so close to the U.S. shoreline can be seen as “a direct challenge to sovereignty and security,” said Heather Conley, a former State Department official who is now a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute.
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who → back → Institute
“It’s super, super sensitive,” she said, adding, “Any scientific data, it immediately is dual use,” meaning it can serve both military and civilian ends.
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it → ’ → ends
Information on changing sea ice and other conditions off the North Slope could help Russia plan activities that undermine U.S. security, said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
uncertain
Bouffard → change → Alaska
The fact that the surveys were given permits and done without interference could be seen as an intelligence failure, he said.
uncertain
he → give → failure
Bouffard added that it’s “highly unlikely” that intelligence personnel didn’t learn of the effort because any work in the austere, remote and militarily sensitive North Slope area stands out.
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work → add → austere
“All this is really surprising,” Bouffard said.
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Bouffard → say → ?
The surveys were conducted in the second half of 2025, paused during harsh weather, then restarted in mid-2026, documents and sources say.
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documents → conduct → mid-2026
By late August 2026, dozens of contractors were stationed on three large vessels — the Annika Marie, the Ukpik and the Uŋalaq — loaded with equipment for tasks such as monitoring waves, testing currents, and tides, and drilling core samples in the mud, according to a person familiar with the situation.
uncertain
dozens → station → situation
Then, in September, the CEO of the project’s U.S. arm, Polar Train LNG, resigned, questioned the operation’s legality and asserted it was a Russian ploy to gain control of a strategic U.S. asset, Alaska’s natural gas reserves.
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it → resign → asset
In 2025, the survey work was focused on an area just west of Prudhoe Bay, which is near where the pipeline originates, documents and sources say.
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documents → focus → Bay
The next year, as the area thawed, Polar Train’s CEO, Joel Riddle, and his team told his financiers that location was not ideal for an LNG operation because of the high cost of dredging that would be needed and the potential to interfere with whaling by local residents.
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that → thaw → residents
They urged the company’s UAE parent to focus on a site more than 250 miles to the west.
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They → urge → west
But the UAE company asserted its control over the purportedly American outfit Riddle led in late August and ordered the contractors offshore to head back to a site closer to Prudhoe Bay.
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Riddle → assert → Bay
Riddle resigned the next month, on Sept. 19, warning that Polar Train’s “investments” were “very likely sooner or later to trigger” a federal inquiry.
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investments → resign → inquiry
Polar Train had applied to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control the month before, seeking a waiver of U.S. sanctions to allow it to purchase a partially built LNG plant sitting in a Murmansk, Russia, shipyard and transport it to Alaska.
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it → apply → Alaska
“Deploying this technology in Alaska serves not only to unlock U.S. LNG resources in the Pacific basin closer to key export markets in Asia,” said the application, which ProPublica obtained, “but also to ensure this cutting-edge equipment is deployed primarily to the benefit of the United States rather than Russia.”
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equipment → deploy → Russia
The six-page application did not make clear who was behind the effort, steering the financing and decision-making needed to get the venture off the ground.
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was → make → ground
The document’s digital properties held a clue: Many computer applications include what is known as metadata in a document that can reveal who has previously worked on it.
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who → hold → it
In this instance, the OFAC application was signed by a lawyer in Washington, D.C., but the author’s name was listed in the metadata in Cyrillic: Evgeniya Kononova, a lawyer whose LinkedIn profile says she is deputy head of legal for Novatek in Moscow.
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she → sign → Moscow
Novatek said in a statement to ProPublica that it “provided technical and other information” about its equipment for the waiver request, providing “comments to the draft application.”
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it → say → application
The company did not answer a list of specific questions, including inquiries about Kononova’s role.
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company → answer → role
It’s not clear whether the Russian natural gas executives backing the project hope to operate an LNG plant in Alaska or have a more immediate goal in mind — like finishing the incomplete plant that sanctions had stranded in Russia or gathering intelligence for the Kremlin in a strategically important region.
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sanctions → ’ → region
…and 122 more, not listed.
The Aporia
