The voyage of the tanker along the Northern Sea Route, the shortest one between the European part of Russia and Far East, took only 9 days. Should the tanker have followed the usual southern way, over Suez Canal and Indian ocean, the voyage would have lasted 30 days.
This voyage in fact shows us how practical the usage of the Northern Sea Route could be for the plants of Northern Europe seeking new markets in Asia.
Working a Full Due
Safe ice chanelling for the tanker was provided by atomic ice-breakers “The Vaigach” and “The 50 Years of Victory”, owned by Atomflot, Rosatom sub-company. The LNG load of the tanker amounted to roughly 135,000 cubic meters.
The width of the tanker is 45 meters, which could have brought some complications during ice chanelling. However, thanks to high professionalism of the tanker and Atomflot atomic ships crews, the mission was accomplished within a record short period.
The LNG arriving from the Snevit deposit was loaded at the Hammerfest terminal in Norway. The Ob River left Hammerfest on November 7.
“The Vaigach”, an Atomflot atomic icebreaker, started ice-chanelling of the tanker on November 9, at 10 p.m., near the Kara Strait. At the western part of the Vilkitsky Strait its assistance in chanelling also offered “The 50 Years of Freedom” icebreaker. At 9.20 p.m. on November 18 the Ob River left the Northern sea route. Thus the voyage over the route with an average speed of 12.5 knots took 9 days. After that the gas tanker sailed towards the port of Tobata in Japan on its own.
Having completed its mission, “The Vaigach” went on assisting ships on the Northern Sea routes, while “The 50 Years of Freedom” sailed to Murmansk, to the port of registration, to take its scheduled maintenance, preparing for winter navigation.
Promising Future
Northern Sea route transit cargo traffic surpassed the amount of 1.2 million tons within the summer-fall navigation period of 2012. More than 40 vessels were assisted by the Russian atomic icebreakers over the Northern Sea routes. Last year for this period of time the amount was equal to 34 ships, while the transit cargo traffic amounted to 82,000 tons (in 2010 less than 10 foreign ships were transited over the Northern Sea route).
As we remember, on November 12 in Moscow between Rosatom and NovaTek (Russian gas company) there was signed an agreement. The parties agreed on organization of non-stop icebreaker assistance for ships sailing over Northern Sea routes, both for general construction cargo transportation and for finished products of the natural gas liquefying plant. The plant is to be built by the NovaTEK company on the Yamal Peninsula.
The agreement is made for the term of minimum 15 years, which proves fruitful for both parties. Thus NovaTEK provides transport for all its projects in the Arctic region, while Atomflot provides business guaranteed for its icebreaker fleet along with ability to plan its development for more than a decade ahead. Which, in fact, means organizing and beginning the investment program of its fleet renewal.
This agreement allows us to speak about long-term development of the Northern Sea route, as analysts believe. The more competitors are interested in the fastest and most reasonable way of cargo delivery, the more reasons it will give Rosatom to develop its atomic fleet, construct icebreakers of new generation and, thus, increase the State Atomic Energy Corporation stock of orders.
