More traffic along the Northern Sea Route
Cargo transport through the Northern Sea Route is expected to skyrocket in course of the next decade. Climate change makes it possible to use larger vessels than before and the largest tanker ever to use the passage is expected to leave Murmansk in August.
Russia’s Ministry of Transport believes cargo transport through NSR will increase from last year’s 1.8 million tons to 64 million tons by 2020.
All of Russia’s ambitious plans for development of the Arctic are connected with the Northern Sea Route (NSR), or North-East Passage. Recently the Russian Security Council held a meeting in Naryan-Mar in the Nenets region to discuss the future of this important transport corridor.
The main challenges for a more use of the sea route are the need for new icebreakers and the lack of infrastructure, first of all instruments for navigation and communication and bases for search and rescue services. According to the Security Council’s secretary Nikolay Patrushev, the infrastructure along the route does not meet demands for protection of Russian interests:
-Because of this [poor infrastructure] the investment attractiveness of the country’s largest resource base is low, Patrushev told Izvestiya.
Russia plans to build a series of new search and rescue vessels and make the port of Amderma into a main base for a new emergency unit, as BarentsObserver reported.
Russia plans to build six new icebreakers – three nuclear powered and three with engines, as Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov informed in July.
One of the companies planning to increase its use of the NSR is Novatek, Russia’s second largest producer of natural gas, who plans to ship six times as much gas condensate as the previous year along the route, Oilru.com reports.
Novatek plans to send the largest tanker ever through the Northeast Passage in August, says Deputy Chairman of the board Mikhail Popov. This is the 120 000 tons Suezmax class tanker “Vladimir Tikhonov”. Novatek plans to ship a total of 420 000 tons of gas condensate through the NSR in 2011.
Read also: Season’s first oil-tanker sails Northern Sea Route
Novatek’s tankers are now using a new route through the NSR – to the north of the New Siberian Islands. This is now possible because of the melting sea ice. According to Popov, using this route makes it possible to use tankers with a draught of over 12 meters.
While 2009 was a kind of test year for vessels sailing the entire route from Asia to Europe via the Arctic, 2010 was the breakthrough for commercial shipping along the Northern Sea Route. See BarentsObserver’s overview of vessels that have sailed the Northern Sea Route during the 2010 season.
