According to a new Russian federal law draft, use of the Northern Sea Route will be provided on a paying basis.
As Barents Observer has reported earlier, a federal law on the Northern Sea Route has been under elaboration by the Russian State Duma. The draft has now been sent to the Russian Ministry of Transport for approval. The new law will help regulate shipping along the route, which is believed to become a possible commercial shipping route between Europe and Asia as Arctic sea ice melts.
According to the law draft, use of the Northern Sea Route will be provided on a paying basis, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports. The payment will cover expenses connected to management and operation of the icebreaker fleet, necessary information given to captains on navigational, meteorological and ice situation and eventual expenses connected with cleaning after accidents.
The main users of the Northern Sea Route today are Norilsk Nickel, Gazprom, LUKOIL, Rosneft, Krasnoyar territory, Yakutiya and Chukotka. Compared to the 1980’s the amount of freight transport along the Northern Sea Route has fallen 5-6 times from 6-8 million tons per year.
The international transport amounts to approximately 200 000 tons per year. Foreign companies are interested in using the Northern Sea Route for transport of oil and gas from Arctic regions of Russia, but many ship-owners have doubts about using the route because of high costs. They believe the payment for icebreaker support is unreasonable and that border and customs tariffs are too high. The icebreaker support is said to be unreliable and leading to delays. The capital investments necessary for using the Northern Sea Route are also too high for many ship-owners. The vessels have to be of ice class and tankers have to have double hulls.