Picture: Slava Titov; Source: The Siberian Times

Over the past several years, Russia has been working on the development of its Arctic territories in areas including hydrocarbon exploration and production, and has been developing a Northern Sea Route, an alternative Europe-Asia trade route made possible by the regression of the polar ice cap.

Russia is currently modernizing its existing port facilities and constructing new terminals in the Arctic. These efforts are expected to raise the port capacity of Russian Arctic ports from 72 to 115 million tons-worth of cargo per year over the next 15 years.

“In 2013, the capacity of the ports in the Arctic Basin was estimated at 72 million tons per year, while the actual turnover consisted of only 46 million tons; that is, only 60 percent of the ports’ existing capacity was in use,” RosMorPort Deputy Director Sergei Antonov said according to Sputnik. [Capacity Of Russian Arctic Ports To Grow By 60% Over Next 15 Years]

Citing the policy document “Strategy for the Development of Port Facilities up to 2030,” Antonov stated that the growth in demand for liquid cargo by the end of this period “is expected to reach 133 million tons.”

In the meantime Russia has made a huge milestone step. The first oil shipment left from Yamal Peninsula as tankers headed through the Northern Sea Route for first time.

The frozen waters of Arctic are a big challenge so tests were carried out last year. They tend to be open for about four months in the summer only. And what an achievement! The first ships have departed well ahead of schedule in winter.

“For the first time oil from Novoportovskoye is going to be delivered to European customers. We want to thank Gazprom Oil for their fruitful co-operation (…) I have no doubt that such successful events like today’s oil shipping will strengthen the company even more, cement our relations, and will work towards further social and economic development of Yamal, as well as will make our country even more successful,” Dmitry Kobylkin, the Yamal Nenets Autonomous region governor said.

The Gazprom Oil tankers are due to arrive in Europe early next month. They left Yamal escorted by an ice breaker.  The new route through the East Siberian Sea can save at least three weeks opposite to the traditional route from Russia leading via Asia to Europe.

Picture: Slava Titov; Source: The Siberian Times

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