Russia has been forging ahead with shipments through the Arctic waters of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in February despite tough ice conditions as it moves to open up the Arctic passage year-round.
State nuclear agency Rosatom said its subsidiary Atomflot FSUE’s lead nuclear-powered ice breaker Arktika (built 2020) began escorting the multipurpose vessels — the 7,049-dwt Inzhener Trubin (built 1998) and 7,365-dwt Polar King (built 1994) — from the port of Pevek on 9 February.
Rosatom said it is the first time the project 22220 ice breaker, which was assisted by the diesel-electric ice breaker Kapitan Dranitsyn (built 1980), has taken part in an east-west escort of a convoy.
“Traditionally, in this portion of the Arctic, the piloting of ships was completed by November,” the company added.
The Arktika, which works under a contract to escort convoys of ships carrying cargoes for a large-scale investment project to develop the Baim ore zone in the Chukotka advanced development zone, is due to complete the convoy escort by the end of February.
Atomflot first deputy director general Leonid Irlitsa said: “The convoy piloting will end near the western edge of the Kara Sea ice.
“From the east, Arktika will take the ships through the whole water area of the Northern Sea Route. During the voyage, the captain of the ice breaker will get recommendations from Atomflot’s headquarters of marine operations.”
He said the voyage will become the basis for further planning during the transition to regular year-round escorting in the waters of the NSR.
The eastern region of the NSR is currently affected by severe ice conditions with ice thickness reaching two metres in some places.
The Arktika’s captain Vassily Gubkin said power, manoeuvrability, ice-breaking capability and the ability to change the draught are the key advantages of this new breed of ice breaker.
He said: “The channel behind the ice breaker is wider, straighter and cleaner, which means it is safer to sail behind Arktika in ice conditions.”
Separately Russian gas producer Novatek said on Thursday that the Arc7 ice-class module carrier Audax (built 2016) completed its voyage along the NSR after the traditional navigation season closure.
The vessel was delivering a process module weighing almost 12,000 tonnes for the Arctic LNG 2 project from Tianjin in China to Murmansk.
The module will be installed on the gravity-based structure (GBS) for Arctic LNG 2 Train 1 at the LNG Construction Center in Belokamenka.
Novatek said: “This voyage is unique in terms of a vessel of this size passing the entire Northern Sea Route with a nuclear ice breaker support in February in challenging ice conditions.
“The ice breaker assistance was difficult largely due to navigation specifics during winter 2022.”
It said ice conditions are more severe than previous years with the summer-autumn navigation period ending at the start of November 2021, earlier than seen previously.
“Due to the size of Audax, ice breaker assistance in the route’s most challenging sections in the Chukchi, East Siberian and Kara Seas involved two ice breakers widening the ice channel,” Novatek said.
It said the “successful completion of the voyage” supports its logistics model of the possibility of year-round LNG deliveries via the NSR to the Asia Pacific region.
