Russia is considering of attracting more shippers to transmit their products through the Northern Sea route, by launching a state-run container ship operator, which will cover any risks linked with transporting international cargoes via the Arctic’s icy waters, including possible delivery disruptions and higher insurance payments.
A Novatek official reported to Reuters that Novatek, the Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer is looking to tranship its Yamal cargoes in Norway or Russia’s Murmansk, as the company is still unsure of its shipping activities, following the US’s sanctions on the Chinese COSCO tankers.
Nikolay Monko, the head of Russia’s Northern Sea Route Administration, commented that the volume of products being transmitted through the NSR is expected to reach 29 million tons in course of 2019.
Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University along with other Russian Universities and research centres are part of the Eastern Arctic expedition and recently recorded a big amount of methane emission in the area of East Siberian Sea.
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 general cargo ship ‘Volgo-Balt 205’ caught fire in Russia on Wednesday, September 27 at about 0400 Moscow time, near Tolyatti city, Volga river, Central Russia. The 12 crewmembers evacuated the vessel when it caught fire; Thus, there were no injuries reported.
The US Department of Treasury applied new sanctions against Russian entities and vessels that were involved in a sanctions evasion scheme, on delivering jet fuel to Russian forces operating in Syria.
Tasnim, Turkish news agency, reported that Iran is under discussion with Russia and China to launch a joint naval drill in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean, following the increased tensions in the area. The collaboration between the US, Russia, Iran and China shows the capability of the countries to partner, whereas also presents the ‘political goals’ behind this exercise.
According to Global Data, an analytics company, the US is expected to have a new-build gas processing capacity of 16.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) by 2023, contributing to about 24% of the global processing capacity.
A Russian border patrol vessel was attacked by a North Korean vessel in the Sea of Japan, resulting to the injury of three Russian servicemen. Russia has detained two North Korean vessels that were in Russian territorial waters, according to TASS, the Russian state news outlet.
