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  • 2012 October 19

    Northern Sea Route - not scary any more?

    The Northern Sea Route is gradually developing. There have been 38 sailings year-to-date along the Arctic shortcut versus 34 for the entire shipping season of 2011. Now it’s time to think about creating its infrastructure - rescue centers, navigation stations and supply depots.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Things have started moving

    Shipping along the Northern Sea Route will last approximately until the end of November 2012. During the summer-autumn season, according to Atomflot, nuclear-powered icebreakers have escorted on the NSR merchant vessels that collectively carried 1.03 million tons of transit cargoes. As of October 15 2012, there were 38 different ships that passed the Arctic shortcut. The bulk of transported cargo was of Novatek company. MMC Norilsk Nickel with its own ice-class ships also uses the shortest route for transportation its cargoes to the East, without assistance of icebreakers. Overall, the company’s vessels have made 54 voyages, five of them - ice-class ARC7 tanker Yenisey and the rest were dry bulk carriers. The vessels were escorted by icebreakers only in the beginning of the 2011-2012 winter season, the Company said.

    This year, a foundation stone laying ceremony kicked off the construction of the port of Sabetta, which will become a hub for LNG exports from the Yamal fields (the main investor of the project is Novatek). Earlier, Deputy Minister of Transportation Viktor Olersky had said that Russia might export annually through the port and on the Northern Sea Route up to 5 million tons by 2017 and in the future - 20-25 million tons.

    The country has set out to build new icebreakers. St. Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard on October 10 hosted a keel-laying ceremony for the sea-going 25MW diesel-electric icebreaker that will be operated by Rosmorport. Another icebreaker that will be escorting vessel on the NSR, a nuclear-powered, double-draft ship, will be laid down in 2013.

    Besides, Russian State Duma has approved the law on the Northern Sea Route, which will go into effect in early 2013.

    Navigation

    At the same time, the expected increase in traffic on the Arctic shipping route entails creation of the entire infrastructure in the Far North.

    Federal Agency of Sea and River Transport (Rosmorrechflot) in conjunction with FSUE Hydrographic Enterprise in September 2012 commissioned into service three Arctic ground-based GPS / GLONASS reference stations on the islands of Andrei, Stolbovoi and Kamenka to improve the accuracy of the location of ships with an accuracy of 1 to 5 m.

    Overall, there are currently six ground-based reference stations on the Northern Sea Route, located on the islands of Oleniy, Andrei, Stolbovoy, Kamenka, Sterligov cape and Indigirka River.  So, now the entire Northern Sea Route has already been covered by a network of these stations.
    In addition, the Ministry of Transport is considering establishing a single national hydrographic service.

    Security and emergency response

    Another direction to enable navigation on the Northern Sea Route is the creation of marine rescue centers.
    In 2012-2013, Rosmorrechflot plan to create jointly with Russian Marine Emergency Rescue Service (Gosmorspassluzhba) new bases of rescue units in the western and eastern sectors of the Arctic of the Northern branch of Baltic BASU in the port of Dickson, of Sakhalin branch in the ports of Tiksi, Pevek and Providence.

    Deputy head of Rosmorrechflot Yuri Kostin said the agency also plans to build multipurpose salvage vessels that would have unlimited navigation area, onboard oil spill response equipment for operations in the Arctic: three vessels of capacity of 7 MW, class - Icebreaker6 (project MPSV06) for Baltic BASU’s Arkhangelsk, Primorsky and Sakhalin branches; two vessels of capacity of 4 MW, ice class Arc5 (project MPSV07) - for Primorsky and Arkhangelsk branches of the emergency and rescue service.

    Meanwhile, the Naryan-Mar emergency and rescue center of EMERCOM has been under construction since 2011. The project was initiated by the Security Council of the Russian Federation and is funded through the federal budget and the regional Nenets Autonomous Okrug / Area (NAO) budget. The facility is scheduled for commissioning in 2014.  

    In addition, the local authorities mull the creation in the NAO’s village of Amderma (the Kara Sea) a supply base for the Arctic fields. According to Igor Fyodorov, NAO Governor, the under construction emergency / rescue center would contribute to the base project.
    "This could be either a unit of major E&R Center at the Port of Naryan-Mar, or a separate multipurpose facility based in Amderma," the official said.

    Gazflot is also creating the Arctic supply base in Murmansk. The base is intended for transshipment and storage of cargoes for Shtokman, Prirazlomnoye and Dolginskoye deposits, said Gazflot’s St. Petersburg branch head Peter Kladiyev. Total throughput of the terminal is projected at 2.5 million tons of cargo a year, of that about 780,000 tons will be the cargo for the Shtokman field.

    The facility will be located on two sites, located on either side of the Kola Bay. The project includes dredging of the first section to 9 m, of the second - to nearly 11 m.

    So, 2012 has become the year of real actions for the development of the Russian Arctic and the Northern Sea Route. If all these projects are successfully implemented, it will be possible to say by 2016 that the Arctic routes are prepared for increased maritime traffic. Some experts still doubt it may ever become a popular route, but that’s another story.
    Vitaly Chernov


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