Tag: Northern Sea Route

The Russian government through its Northern Sea Route development plan, which was also approved and signed by the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev before the end of 2019, aims to give a boost to annual shipments on the Northern Sea Route to 80 million metric tons by 2024.

Russia’s largest and most powerful nuclear-powered icebreaker returned from its stage one of sea trials prior to its planned delivery in May 2020. Namely, Arktika, which is still under construction at Russia’s Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, departed St. Petersburg on December to the Gulf of Finland, returning two days later after completing testing of the ship’s generators, navigation and communications systems. 

In fact, Yamal LNG announced the operational start of its new Arc7 ice-class LNG tanker Yakov Gakkel- the fifteenth and final of the Arc7 ice-class tankers built specifically for the Yamal LNG Project, according to a recent statement. Namely, the “Yakov Gakkel” has loaded the 354th LNG cargo in the port of Sabetta and is now set to China.

Rosatom is completing the legal process of acquiring a non-controlling interest in logistics firm Delo Management Company, to further solidify its position in the Arctic. On the basis of Rosatom’s logistics assets and the assets of Delo Asset Management, it is planned to create a new Arctic container line. 

MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has decided not to use the Arctic as a new short cut between northern Europe and Asia and will instead focus on enhancing environmental performance on existing global trade routes.

The largest container vessel in the fleet of Russian carrier Oboronlogistics, Sparta III, successfully delivered cargo from China to Europe via the Northern Sea Route. The carrier in particular, stated that the overall saving on the journey is estimated to be USD $330,000. Moreover, significant savings in fuel and increase of security were also reported since the vessel navigated through pirate-free regions.

The ship Tian Xi of China's COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co., Ltd. has arrived at Qingdao Port after completing a voyage through the Arctic shipping route. Returning from Finland's Helsinki, Tian Xi vessel has transported approximately 30,000 tons of high-quality paper pulp back to China.

An annual cargo flow of 80 million tons of cargo are planned to be shipped annually through the Northern Sea Route by 2024, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev told delegates on the sidelines of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) Public Council.

On 2 September 2019, Korolev Prospect, Sovcomflot’s LNG-fueled Aframax crude oil tanker, successfully carried out a commercial voyage along the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This is the first time that a large-capacity oil tanker has crossed the full length of the NSR using only LNG.

On 26 August, the LNG-fueled Aframax crude oil tanker 'Korolev Prospect', owned by Russian Sovcomflot, began a transit of the Northern Sea Route. The ship will become the first such large-capacity crude oil tanker to travel the entire length of the Northern Sea Route using only LNG fuel.