Speaking at last week’s Murmansk Economic Forum, company deputy Yevgenii Ambrosov said oil shipments will be sent along the Northern Sea Route from year 2010, MBnews.ru reports.
That news comes as interest in Arctic shipping picks pace in several of the world’s major shipping companies. As BarentsObserver reported, the German company Beluga already this year sent two of its ships along the route. That operation was successful and more companies are now expected to follow.
Among them might be also Gazprom. In his presentation at the Murmansk Economic Forum, company CEO Aleksey Miller indicated that LNG from the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea might be shipped not only westwards towards the USA and EU, but also eastwards along the Northern Shipping Route. A map shown by the company leader displayed Gazprom ships operating the route from year 2014.
Oil shipping in the western part of the Russian Arctic has over the last years shown a steady increase. A 2009 report from Akvaplan-Niva and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat estimates that 15 million tons of oil will be shipped across the Barents Sea this year. In few years, oil shipping in the area might exceed 100 million tons per year, the report authors maintain.
The planned shipping operations along the far northern route will be of major risk both to the vulnerable marine environment and to the ships and their crews. The Northern Sea route which stretches all along Russia’s Arctic coast, has hardly any emergency and rescue facilities available. A crisis situation with one of the ships operating the route might have catastrophic consequences.
The increasing interest in Arctic shipping was also on the agenda when the foreign ministers of Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden met in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council session in Murmansk last week. The foreign policy leaders agreed to step up cooperation within emergency and rescue in the area. From before, the four Barents countries are successfully hold bi-annual joint rescue and emergency training operation. The Barents Rescue was this year held in Murmansk Oblast.
