Russian tankers are waiting to load Siberian hydrocarbons
At least 15 tankers carrying approximately 10.7 million barrels of crude oil benefited this year from Northern Sea Routeas the passage along is called northern coast of Russia. For comparison, during last year’s entire navigation season, 14 ships carried approximately 10.5 million barrels. There’s still a month left before the waters become too icy and dangerous for transit.
The first Russian icebreaker-tanker
The first ship launched at the South Korean Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in 2017 ARCT7 class it has a capacity of 170 thousand m³ and is capable of withstand low temperatures down to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Special technology makes it easier for him to deal with hull icingwhich is one of the greatest threats to units operating above the Arctic Circle. The ship’s flat bow makes it easier crushing ice with a thickness of 1.2 to even over 2 meters.
Empty tankers waiting to be loaded
Three empty tankers that have already made the trip south and back this season are currently parked anchored off the coast of the Russian Arctic port of Murmanskand the next two are scheduled to arrive there at the beginning of October. If the Russians manage to send all five of them with cargo to South Asia, it is possible that last year’s record for crude oil transport via the Northern Sea Route. These five ships alone could increase this year’s traffic to more than 14.4 million barrels.
New sea routes needed
Western sanctions and Houthi drone attacks in the Red Sea increased attractiveness of the Northern Sea Route shipping route as the shortest route from Russia to the eastern ports of China. Appearance ARCT7 class tankers and gas carriers along with global warming opened the way for maritime transport above the Arctic Circlebut also raised concerns about the environmental impact of the increased number of transits.
Environmental hazards
“Distance, lack of infrastructure and inhospitablee environmental conditions in the Arctic mean that in case oil spill significant logistical and operational challenges will need to be overcome,” says the International Pollution Federation of Tanker Owners, a non-profit organization set up by global shipowners to promoting effective responses to spills of oil, chemicals and other hazardous substances into the seas and oceans.
Profits matter
However, using the Northern Sea Route can more than halve the time needed to transport cargo from ports on the Baltic Sea to Moscow’s main customers in China. The savings are even greater with shipments from Arctic terminals located in Murmansk.
It usually takes just over a week to complete sail around the northern coast of Russia from Novaya Zemlya in the west to the Bering Strait in the east. From there, it typically takes about 12-14 days to reach ports around Shanghai or those in northern China. For comparison, the travel time from the Arctic port of Murmansk through the Baltic Sea and the Suez Canal to Shanghai takes about a month and a half, and sometimes even 50 days.
Winter will come earlier this year
Navigation season on the Northern Sea Route in 2024 it was supposed to last from July 1 to the end of November, but it stayed shortened due to “earlier ice formation due to the large amount of residual ice, especially in the eastern part of the Arctic,” said the state-owned company Rosatom, which manages the route. Rosatom is a company that primarily designs and builds nuclear power plants, nuclear reactors for navy ships and civilian ships, and also provides the majority uranium fuel used in the world’s power plants.
This will result in faster ice floe formation and water glass freezing closing the Northern Sea Route to ships without ice class already on October 15, and from the beginning of November for everyone except the most powerful tankers that also function as icebreakers. Most of the ships using the route are relatively modern vessels belonging to Russian shipping giant Sovcomflot. But this year, several older ships, members of a shadow fleet of tankers built to circumvent Western sanctions on transporting Russian oil, also managed to sail through this route.
Nearly half of the ships using the Northern Sea Route this year are 15 years or older. That compares with about a third of tankers using the route last year.
