Belkomur, pros and cons

Russia's northern regions continue to lobby the Belkomur project, the Northern Latitudinal Railway and other ambitious projects for creation of a single Arctic Transportation Corridor. Sabetta is also supposed to be included in the agenda as a dry cargo port with an annual throughput of 70 million tonnes.

North synchronization

At the recently held St. Petersburg III International Conference "The Arctic: Present and Future", the governors of Russia's northern regions offered to consider the following projects (Belkomur Northern latitudinal railway, Murmansk Transport Hub), construction of Sabetta port and expansion of the Port of Arkhangelsk as an integrated infrastructure “The United Arctic Transport System". To achieve this, the governor of the Republic of Komi Vyacheslav Gaiser offered "synchronization" of all these projects.

The official said that the Komi Republic and the Murmansk region had set up a joint working group to synchronize the projects. The projects operators Interregional Company Belkomur and Murmansk Transport Hub have signed a joint venture agreement to work together with RZD and Russian institutions to form an integrated transport system and freight flows.
The Komi Republic and  Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug are doing the same job and have set up a similar joint task group that will start work shortly.

"Synchronization in implementation of northern transportation projects generates a single transport network of the Russian North, stimulates the development and improvement of the railway network and cargo ports as bases of the Northern Sea Route, helps boost throughput capacity of existing and creation of new railway lines and port facilities", said Vyacheslav Gaiser.

Yamal dreams

The YNAO Governor Dmitry Kobylkin added that the Sabetta port projected capacity will reach more than 70 million tonnes a year, including dry bulk transshipment. However, the port project investors focus, primarily, on LNG exports from the Yamal fields.

The port construction is carried out in extremely harsh conditions. For example, the designers plan to apply a unique system of artificial heating of the harbour, laser mooring of LNG carriers that will be built taking into account their operations in Sabetta. According to the chief engineer of the Port Sabetta project at "LENMORNIIPROEKT" Alexei Chichel, the LNG carriers will be designed to independently enter the port waters and also independently dock using bow thrusters. In this regard, it is still not quite clear what dry bulk carries will be able to call at such port. Those should be large vessels, otherwise the transportation won't pay off. In this case, the bulkers will require customized designs, like LNG tankers, but all this requires a stable cargo base and huge investment.

Yet, it is unclear what loads Dmitry Kobylkin was talking about. If he meant cargoes of Perm-Solikamsk based enterprises, then the distance from there to St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga with successfully functioning marine dry bulk terminals, is roughly the same as to Sabetta. If we are talking about shipments from the territories close to Yamal, then the cargo base there is not significant. The entire Belkomur is designed to carry up to 35 million tonnes and the lion's share of this volume will be directed not to Sabetta, but to Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and St. Petersburg.

The route via Sabetta is longer and complicated for westbound voyage, besides, passing through the Arctic waters. If we take an eastbound direction, say, for exports to the Asia-Pacific region, the lane is open only during the summer season. It is unlikely that they will find sufficient cargo base for this route.

To make the dreams of Yamal governor come true, the investors will have to build a railway branch from Gazprom's Obskaya-Bovanenkovo ​line to Sabetta, taking into account permafrost conditions with appropriate funds.

The issue of diversification of cargo base of the port was brought up in November 2012 at a meeting of NOVATEK's head Leonid Mikhelson (the Sabetta project investor) with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I... discussed this issue with Gazprom's officials and I think that the future port's capabilities could be expanded, meaning that it could well be a multipurpose one", Vladimir Putin said at the meeting.

Mr. Mikhelson told President Putin that the parties are now considering the issue of "how actually implement the railway investment project - from Gazprom's to Bovanenkovo branch line and further to Sabetta village (where the future port will be created)."

The company's head noted that the problem is to have "a flat rate and that RZD would be responsible for entire traffic"

"If we have a railroad, there will be a multipurpose port", the investor said.

The question is left open: at whose expense, and most importantly - for what cargo base?

Arkhangelsk dreams

Initially, Belkomur project was designed for loading at the port of Arkhangelsk. Indeed, it is a shortlist lane to haul cargo from Perm and Solikamsk region to the port. Furthermore, Belkomur might help develop the timber industry of the Arkhangelsk region and its products could also be shipped to the port.

However, we face yet another challenge here: there is no deep-water port in Arkhangelsk. But the corresponding investment project had been prepared. On the sidelines of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Arkhangelsk Governor Igor Orlov has told PortNews that “it is planned to create, before the end of 2013, a Management Company of the deepwater port of Arkhangelsk”.  

Deepwater port will be build 55 km north of the main port area. This would require an access railroad. According to the project maximum draft of vessels will be 11 m. Today, Arkhangelsk can accommodate only 9-m draft ships. Projected throughput of the port will be 28 million tonnes, including more than 3.5 million tonnes of coal, 17.5 million tonnes of containerized cargo, 2.5 million tonnes of liquid cargo with estimated payback period of 8 years.

Meanwhile, potential investors of the deepwater port expect final decision on Belkomur. It turns out a kind of vicious circle.

Murmansk Transport Hub

As for the Murmansk Transport Hub project, actually, it is doing fine without Belkomur or united Arctic Transport System. The project has its investors, Port Lavna and Rosneft. The latter intends to build on the western shore of the Kola Bay an oil terminal, and create on The 82 Dockyard a base for offshore development (read more details in an interview of Murmansk Gov Marina Kovtun with IAA PortNews >>>>).   

Once the project gets go-ahead from GlavGosEkspertiza, investors will proceed to its implementation, the Governor Kovtun said.

It seems that it is more important for Murmansk region to upgrade the Volkhovstroy-Murmansk branch line. Of course, the Belkomur extension to Murmansk wouldn't hurt, but its absence will not be critical, taking into account the Volkhovstroy-Murmansk upgrade.

Immediate prospects of Belkomur

According to Vyacheslav Gaiser, the Belkomur project total cost is estimated at RUB 176 billion rubles (in 2012). The new line's capacity is about 35 million tonnes of cargo per year, largely new goods, as the project supporters believe, with about 40% of the volume contributed by cargo owners from nearby territories.

Main freight flows will be generated by such goods as: coal, fertilizers, oil and timber, ore, building materials and containers that will be hauled to northern Russian ports - Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Belomorsk, St. Petersburg and possibly Sabetta.  

The project is expected to be implemented on the basis of public-private partnership involving the Russian Federation, Russian and foreign construction and financial institutions and organizations.

Design and construction period of the line is five years. If the project starts in 2014, the trunk railway will be put into service in 2018-2019, said Vyacheslav Gaiser.

Vitaly Chernov.