Polar Shipping Routes

[ivica]

Polar Shipping Routes page (Rodrigue, J-P et al. (2012) The Geography of Transport Systems, Hofstra University, Department of Global Studies & Geography, http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans.) gives basic information and map.

Asian Venture ship (vehicles carrier) is according to SailWX at position N 88°42' E 053°40'. That fits Transpolar Sea Route.
I have no information is any icebreaker escorting the ship.

BTW: Thinking about NP40 which is not too far away.

[Espen]

Ivica;

I am pretty this Asian Venture is not near that location, only very few ships have the ice certificate that allows them to enter into the polar sea, and I have never heard of vehicle carriers being classified for that purpose, and BTW it is in th Persian Gulf at the moment:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?oldmmsi=352297000&zoom=10&olddate=lastknown

Here is a sample of a ice classified vessel: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/showallphotos.aspx?imo=9242986&photoid=139988#top_photo

[mati]

yer map is wrong..

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=9&oldmmsi=352297000&olddate=5/26/2013%202:08:00%20AM
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=352297000

[ivica]

Espen & mati, thanks.
Yes, position in Persian Gulf makes more sense, for that ship.

Collecting info already existing on ASIF:

Link to New Trans-Arctic shipping routes navigable by midcentury article given by Jim Hunt here.

mati has thread China to start shipping via the northern sea route.

[Anne]

US heavy-duty ice-breaker Polar Star is back in service and undergoing Arctic trials, having put out of Unalaska on Friday. The 35-year-old ship is one of two US ships designed to break through ice up to 21 feet thick.

Members of the Alaska and Washington congressional delegations have argued for beefing up the nation's ice-breaking capabilities as climate change opens up more previously frozen regions to scientific and commercial exploration.

[Espen]

Where on earth do you find 21 feet (6,4 meter) sea ice now a days?
Why do they always have to exaggerate it is far from Texas

[anonymous]

Where on earth do you find 21 feet (6,4 meter) sea ice now a days?

Icebridge data from 2013 goes up to 24m in the Arctic. Not saying there are floes of this thickness, but there are still ridges which stop any icebreaker. Well, probably not at the Russian side.

[Espen]

And not in US territory either

[Anne]

More on heavy-duty icebreaker Polar Star, headed for the Arctic in search of ice in which to test her systems. She is expected to be in the Arctic for the next month and a half. The ship is "equipped to smash through up to 6 feet of ice at 3 knots and 21 feet if backing and ramming." No word on where she's going, but interesting that she's headed to the Antarctic later in the year to break ice into the U.S. McMurdo Station on Ross Island.  (The nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker Yamal is confined to the northern hemisphere because she's dependent on cold water to cool her reactor.)

[mati]

Shipping through the melting Arctic looks to be increasing fivefold this summer compared to 2012. 270 vessels have so far received permits to sail along the Northern Sea Route which connects East Asia to Europe via the waters off of Russia’s northern coast.


http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2013/07/towards-commercial-breakthrough-northern-sea-route-30-07

[mati]

actual ships requesting passage:

http://asmp.morflot.ru/en/razresheniya/

[Neven]

Thank you, mati! That's good info.

[Jim Hunt]

And according to CBC:

19 vessels have officially registered with authorities to sail through the Northwest Passage this year, but the true number may be much higher

.

[Anne]

The headline of this story is about the lifting of one of the obstacles to Shell's drilling (which is bad enough), but look what else is there:

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo also spoke at the NAMEPA conference, raising fresh concerns about increasing commercial marine traffic in the Arctic and the lack of international rules, both of which are creating risks.

“This is not something in the future. This is happening now,” Ostebo said. “Eight days ago we had a 1,000-foot tanker carrying a million gallons of fuel transit the Bering Straits. This is not a U.S.-registered vessel, it is operated by a third party (not the vessel owner) and it is not polar class,” which meant it lacked special ice protection, Ostebo said.

This year also saw the earliest entry of a cruise ship into the Arctic, a Russian vessel with 600 passengers.

“What would happen if there were a problem? We could have 600 people and half a million gallons of fuel in the sea off Point Hope,” he said.

The risks aren’t just fuel. Chemicals are also being carried on vessels crossing the Arctic. Russia has issued permits to more than 200 vessels to make the crossing this year, a four-fold increase in two years, Ostebo said.

The Coast Guard is particularly concerned about the lack of agreed-on “rules of the road” in the Bering Strait.

“We do not have a vessel separation and traffic system in place,” Ostebo said, unlike other geographically congested points where there is marine traffic, such as the Straits of Mallaca or Gilbraltar. “What we have is a free-for-all, with whoever going where they want.”

The rules are complex for establishing international vessel traffic systems under the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, so the best approach is a bilateral agreement with Russia.

Particularly alarming to note that ships without adequate hull protection are using the route.
 
The IMO is drafting a new Polar Code, but they aren't there yet.

Canadian and US Coastguards conducted a joint "spill drill" exercise in the Bering Strait last month.

[Tor Bejnar]

Container ship crossing Arctic for first time
_{^{Published: Wednesday, August 21, 2013}}
The 19,000-ton ship Yong Sheng, operated by China's state-controlled COSCO Group, is about to become the first container-transporting vessel to sail to Europe from China through the Arctic rather than taking the usual southerly route through the Suez Canal, shaving two weeks off the regular travel time in the process.
The ship is in the midst of a scheduled 35-day voyage from the port of Dalian to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. It would normally take 48 days to journey through the Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea.

_{[excerpt from eenews.net]}

[Anne]

There's a long Guardian article about the Yong Sheng's voyage and the Arctic route here.

[JimD]

When Mati posted his link above on the 6th of Aug the number of ships requesting permission to make the passage was 270.

Just 15 days later it is 431.

On another thread I posted a note about Chinese projections of the number of ships they expect to have crossing the Arctic in 2020.  They expect 15% of their total to go via the Arctic Ocean by then.  We could be looking  at 3,000 ships a year in 2020.

Espen

Interesting number.  Out of curiosity I was wondering how many ships that might mean.

In 2011 China's container port traffic was 140 million teu's (an industry measure  - a teu is the equivalent to a 20ft sea container).

From Wiki the average size of a container ship is roughly 10,000 teu's (there are a few as large as 16,000).

14,000 container ship loads then in 2011 for China.

15% would then work out to 2100 ships crossing the arctic just from China!!   Yikes!!

Considering all the other countries who would also be using the Arctic Ocean routes we  could be looking at several thousand crossings a season. 

For reference I found reports that the number of crossings of the Northern Sea Route in 2012 was about 60 and the number of trips through the Northwest passage was 20 or so.  Even if we assume that the Arctic total was 100 passages last year then we are talking about an increase of around 30 times in 7 years.  I can only imagine the impacts.

[Sigmetnow]

From the Wall Street Journal's "Markets & Finance" section on Aug 22:  "Northern Shipping Route Opens Up in Self-Fulfilling Prophecy"

"In the frozen emptiness where Russia meets the Arctic Circle, a self-fulfilling prophecy is playing out.

Japanese and South Korean energy companies have begun shipping oil products through the Arctic’s melting ice—adding credibility to a route that could slash costs while avoiding risks associated with ferrying cargo through the Suez Canal."

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/08/22/northern-shipping-route-opens-up-in-self-fulfilling-prophecy/

[Jim Hunt]

The Yong Sheng has reappeared on AIS, and is currently heading south through the North Sea towards Rotterdam:

[Jim Hunt]

The Yong Sheng has now safely reached Rotterdam. Unfortunately the Nordvik has had an argument with a piece of ice and lost:

http://econnexus.org/the-yong-sheng-docks-in-rotterdam-as-the-nordvik-is-holed-on-the-northern-sea-route/

The tanker was fully loaded with diesel oil. As a result of the collision with the ice floe, the tanker got a hole in one of the ballast tanks and started taking in water. The hole has been plugged and the water ingress has stopped. The vessel is now drifting in the Matisen Strait. There is still no information about any leakage of oil.

[Espen]

New shipping venture: Coal from Canada to Finland by the North West Passage (in danish):

http://shippingwatch.dk/Rederier/article5981405.ece?ref=epn

[Espen]

This ship is now underway from Vancouver (Canada)  to Finland with coal. It is said to be the first commercial trip ever via the Nord West Passage (article in danish):

http://epn.dk/brancher/transport/skib/ECE5989047/banebrydende-dansk-issejlads-godt-pa-vej/

[Jim Hunt]

Thanks for the heads up Espen. My English language take on the story:

http://econnexus.org/the-northwest-passage-is-open-for-business/

[Jim Hunt]

The Nordic Orion has now successfully made its way through the southern route of the Northwest Passage and is currently heading out of Lancaster Sound into Baffin Bay:

http://econnexus.org/the-northwest-passage-is-open-for-business/#comment-44329

[Laurent]

Some news :
Arctic Shipping: Good For Invasive Species, Bad For the Rest of Nature
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/global-warmings-unexpected-consequence-invasive-species-180951573/?no-ist

Arctic shipping and marine invaders
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n6/full/nclimate2244.html#affil-auth

New Trans-Arctic shipping routes navigable by midcentury
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/27/1214212110.abstract?sid=8c829f84-716c-480d-98e5-7d7aef6856dc

Melting Arctic Ice Will Make Way for More Ships--and More Species Invasions
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/melting-arctic-sea-ice-means-more-shipping-and-more-invasive-species/

http://www.fishwatch.gov/seafood_profiles/species/crab/species_pages/red_king_crab.htm

[solartim27]

An old thread, but it seemed to be the best place to post this.  A nice gif of shipping activity in the Arctic.
https://twitter.com/WoodsHoleResCtr/status/973311746269171712?s=20

WHRC & @FletcherSchool working with the longest Arctic record of satellite ship-tracking data to support sustainable development. @g_fiske also mapped every interaction with sea ice - results show mean center shift in shipping activity by nearly 300 km north and east

[morganism]

Arctic sea ice becoming a spring hazard for North Atlantic ships

American Geophysical Union. "Arctic sea ice becoming a spring hazard for North Atlantic ships." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 March 2018.

<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180319115755.htm>.

In early June, the Canadian coast guard pulled the research icebreaker Amundsen off its scientific expedition to escort ferries caught in the congested seas to open water, and conduct search and rescue operations for stranded passengers of ferry boats and ships trapped in the ice, as it was the only large icebreaker available at the time.

Between search and rescue missions, Barber and other scientists aboard the Amundsen used the ship's research equipment to figure out where the sea ice had come from and why so much ice was there at all.

[vox_mundi]

Pentagon Warns On Risk of Chinese Submarines in Arctic
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-military-arctic/pentagon-warns-on-risk-of-chinese-submarines-in-arctic-idUSKCN1S829H

China is becoming a rising power not only in consumer technology and artificial intelligence but also in Arctic military operations and nuclear submarine construction, according to a new report from the Pentagon.

“Arctic border countries have raised concerns about China’s expanding capabilities and interest in the region,” notes the report, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2019,” published today. Often called the “China Military Power” report, it’s required annually by Congress. This year, it highlights the country’s prowess in the Arctic. In 2018, China completed its ninth Arctic expedition last year, published its first Arctic strategy document, and launched its second icebreaker, the Xuelong 2. The ship, capable of breaking 1.5 meters of ice, is the first polar research vessel that “can break ice while moving forwards or backwards,” according to the report.

... The Pentagon report noted that Denmark has expressed concern about China’s interest in Greenland, which has included proposals to establish a research station and a satellite ground station, renovate airports and expand mining.

also; ...

The China Challenge
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-army-nuclear/

[vox_mundi]

Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group in Alaska for High-End, Joint Exercise Northern Edge 2019 
https://news.usni.org/2019/05/14/theodore-roosevelt-strike-group-in-alaska-for-high-end-joint-exercise-northern-edge-2019

An aircraft carrier is in Alaska for Exercise Northern Edge for the first time in a decade, as the service continues to prioritize re-learning how to operate in the Arctic.

... The Arctic ice cap is as small as we’ve seen in our lifetime, and this gives rise to increasing trade routes and sea lanes that are open more times of the year, so it’s incredibly important that we as an Arctic nation continue to operate in this area to protect this vital area to our national defense.

[vox_mundi]

Kinda like getting reassigned to Thule Air Base if you screwed-up ...

The Worst Orders You’ll Ever Get?

NavyTimes: — If you think your ship has everything it needs to operate anywhere in the world, you might consider stocking up on baseball bats, silicone heating pads, mukluks and working uniforms with seven layers of insulation.

That’s because if lawmakers here have their way, the Navy might cut you orders to what they’re calling “Strategic Arctic Ports” — anchorages near increasingly thawing waterways in a northern region that’s becoming an “emerging strategic choke point of future great power competition.”

All of that’s tucked into Section 1041 of the new 988-page defense spending bill. It orders the Pentagon to begin coordinating with the U.S. Coast Guard and Maritime Administration to find “potential sites for one of more strategic ports in the Arctic,” a place Navy surface warships and aircraft carriers have rarely ventured over the past three decades.

... The legislation mandates that the northern ports will host “at least one of each type of Navy or Coast Guard vessel,” including a guided-missile destroyer and a Legend-class National Security Cutter, along with a heavy polar ice breaker.

The sites will have the capacity for equipment, fuel storage and defense systems and be linked by roads to airports that can support military aircraft.

... Some longtime Arctic hands wonder if Capitol Hill sounds unrealistically ambitious about northern ports.

“It reads like, ‘Where are we going to put Naval Base Norfolk in the Arctic?’ That’s a bit of a stretch,” said retired Coast Guard Capt. Lawson Brigham, the former commander of the icebreaker Polar Sea during expeditions through the Arctic and Antarctic.

Now a global fellow as the Woodrow Wilson Center and a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher, Brigham said multiple challenges confront anyone trying to build an Arctic port from scratch, starting with finding deep water along western Alaska’s shallow coastline.

“You’ve got to have draft. You’ve got to have depth of water,” Brigham added. “You’ve got to have a proper place to moor ships, not necessarily in the ice. An Aegis-class cruiser or destroyer can’t go anywhere near the ice.”

And then there’s the price tag.

“The question that makes everyone nervous is, ‘Who pays for this?’” he said. “What agency is going to have to pony up?”

... Planners need to realize that there’s no road or railway that connects the small towns to larger cities, Brigham said.

“It is good to take a hard look at what’s feasible and practical for a port in the United States maritime Arctic,” Brigham concluded.

https://www.businessinsider.com/%C3%A7

[Sebastian Jones]

Kinda like getting reassigned to Thule Air Base if you screwed-up ...
<Snip>
... The legislation mandates that the northern ports will host “at least one of each type of Navy or Coast Guard vessel,” including a guided-missile destroyer and a Legend-class National Security Cutter, along with a heavy polar ice breaker.

The sites will have the capacity for equipment, fuel storage and defense systems and be linked by roads to airports that can support military aircraft.

... Some longtime Arctic hands wonder if Capitol Hill sounds unrealistically ambitious about northern ports.

“It reads like, ‘Where are we going to put Naval Base Norfolk in the Arctic?’ That’s a bit of a stretch,” said retired Coast Guard Capt. Lawson Brigham, the former commander of the icebreaker Polar Sea during expeditions through the Arctic and Antarctic.

Now a global fellow as the Woodrow Wilson Center and a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher, Brigham said multiple challenges confront anyone trying to build an Arctic port from scratch, starting with finding deep water along western Alaska’s shallow coastline.

“You’ve got to have draft. You’ve got to have depth of water,” Brigham added. “You’ve got to have a proper place to moor ships, not necessarily in the ice. An Aegis-class cruiser or destroyer can’t go anywhere near the ice.”
<Snip>
... Planners need to realize that there’s no road or railway that connects the small towns to larger cities, Brigham said.

“It is good to take a hard look at what’s feasible and practical for a port in the United States maritime Arctic,” Brigham concluded.

https://www.businessinsider.com/%C3%A7

For an in depth exploration of the madness behind this kind of thinking, one can do worse than read "The Firecracker Boys" by Dan O'Neil. The book describes efforts towards building a deepwater port in western Alaska. Major excavation would be required- to save time the plan was to use a series of massive hydrogen bombs. It was only through determined opposition by radical green groups that this project was halted. Well, that and the (belated) realization that a radioactive port would be of limited use...

[morganism]

Interview: Challenges and Opportunities of the Northern Sea Route

"During her voyage along the Northern Sea Route, the LNG carrier was escorted by the nuclear icebreaker Yamal. We expect that in the future, the use of next-generation Project 22220 nuclear icebreakers will further improve the efficiency of ice escorts and reduce the NSR transit times. These icebreakers, currently under construction, surpass Yamal in terms of power capacity and hull breadth.   

As for the ice conditions, they matched our forecasts. Certainly, in some areas, thick hummocky ice fields, plastic deformation of ice and ice pressure impacted progress. However, the crews of the icebreaker and our LNG carrier were well prepared to handle these obstacles, and in terms of navigation techniques, this did not create any serious difficulties for either vessel.

As anticipated, the most challenging parts of the route proved to be the Vilkitsky Strait, where the vessels observed numerous icebergs, as well as the East Siberian and the Chukchi seas, where the passage through the ice fields was complicated by severe hummocking and ice pressure. In these areas the ice was free-moving, rather than being attached to the shore, which required our vessel to use her maximum power when underway."

https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/interview-challenges-and-opportunities-of-the-northern-sea-route

[morganism]

Russia races to build giant ice-breakers for Arctic dominance

That is where the four new ships -- "Sibir", "Ural", "Yakutia" and "Chukhotka" -- will eventually be based.

Kirill Myadzyuta, the shipyard's chief of construction, said the vessels are a "huge step forward" towards Arctic development.

The ships are designed to resist extreme weather conditions in the Far North, towering 52 metres (170-feet) high with a length of 173 metres (568 feet) and able to smash through ice up to 2.8 metres (9.2 feet) thick.

Russia has not skimped to reap Arctic benefits.

Each ship commissioned by state atomic energy corporation Rosatom costs more than 340 million euros ($400 million).

Construction requires more than 1,000 people and lasts five to seven years.

https://www.spacewar.com/afp/210715055224.woq1wynl.html

[gerontocrat]

Russia has significant natural advantages (e.g. a vast coastline, a sea route already useable for most of the year and usually totally ice-free for 2 - 3 months).

Add to that a well-developed and rapidly improving infrastructure.

The 4 new Russian icebreakers are merely the latest addition to an icebreaker fleet that makes everybody else's look like minnows. (images attached).

The only way the US of A can compete with Russia in the Arctic is through air and underwater (i.e. subs) supremacy. And even that is a big ask given they will have to start from almost nothing on the ground.

click images to enlarge

[morganism]

I heard one of the polar icebreaker fleet just failed, 6 months ago, do to parts not available, after years of making do and heroic hardware hacking.

Thought they had a fire, and total loss of engine compartment ?

[Tor Bejnar]

See the USCGC Healy: scientific missions to the Arctic thread's most recent post.

[gerontocrat]

It would probably take the USA 20 years to match the Russian icebreaker fleet by which time who knows what will have happened to summer and winter Arctic sea ice (and what will have happened to the Russian Federation, the US of A and the whole planet).
 
                                         USCGC Healy                    Russia's "Arktica"
Length, Overall                   420' (128 meters)                   570' ( 173 metres)
Beam, Maximum             82' (25 meters)                      112' (  34 metres)
Displacement, Full Load   16,000 LT                               33,500 metric tons

Commissioned                        1999                                       2019

[oren]

In 20 years the fleet might be obsolete. And the ASIF too...

[interstitial]

While it would be nice if the US had a few more icebreakers to study the Arctic the most probable reason the US would build more icebreakers is for military operations. The shipping route just is not likely to become that important to the US. I do not imagine the US would ever have use for more than a handful of them. Oil and gas would be another reason but hopefully demand for that starts to fall soon.

[blu_ice]

If / when the Arctic summer sea is gone there will still be sea ice in winter. Longer Arctic sailing season will increase demand for icebreakers.

It’s a bit strange that the US is surrendering the control of such a large and developing area to the Russians and increasingly also the Chinese.

[interstitial]

If / when the Arctic summer sea is gone there will still be sea ice in winter. Longer Arctic sailing season will increase demand for icebreakers.

It’s a bit strange that the US is surrendering the control of such a large and developing area to the Russians and increasingly also the Chinese.

For China it is an important trade route to Europe. For Russia there is a much shallower coast to exploit. For the US there is .... little there.

[kassy]

The land infrastructure will sink and sag even more so when the Arctic ice goes.

We could send them south to ram the ice near Antarctica so the deep water can vent out earlier (one long term driver is rain bands moving south so water freshens and you get more extent keeping heat in so more glacier bottom melt).

[FredBear]

The land infrastructure will sink and sag even more so when the Arctic ice goes.

We could send them south to ram the ice near Antarctica so the deep water can vent out earlier (one long term driver is rain bands moving south so water freshens and you get more extent keeping heat in so more glacier bottom melt).

The ice needs heat vented rapidly after sunset so that the resulting ice is nice and white ready for reflecting sunlight back to space. The earth has storms which do this naturally without using nuclear-powered icebreakers    .    .    .   but is global warming sneaking up underneath?

[vox_mundi]

Report to Congress on Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter
https://news.usni.org/2023/07/12/report-to-congress-on-coast-guard-polar-security-cutter-21

The Coast Guard testified in April and June 2023 that it had recently signed out a new fleet mix analysis that concluded that the Coast Guard will require a total of eight to nine polar icebreakers to perform its various polar (i.e., Arctic and Antarctic) missions in coming years. Prior to this new fleet mix analysis, Coast Guard officials had stated that the service in coming years would need at least six polar icebreakers, including three capable of breaking heavy polar ice.

The operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet currently consists of one heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Star, and one medium polar icebreaker, Healy. In addition to Polar Star, the Coast Guard has a second heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Sea. Polar Sea, however, suffered an engine casualty in June 2010 and has been nonoperational since then. Polar Star and Polar Sea entered service in 1976 and 1978, respectively, and are now well beyond their originally intended 30-year service lives. The Coast Guard plans to extend the service life of Polar Star until the delivery of at least the second PSC. (... 2100?)

The Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC) program is a program to acquire at least three new PSCs (i.e., heavy polar icebreakers), to be followed years from now by the acquisition of additional new Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs) (i.e., medium polar icebreakers). The Navy and Coast Guard in 2020 estimated the combined total procurement cost of the first three PSCs in then-year dollars as $2,673 million (i.e., about $2.7 billion).

... The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2024 budget also requests $125.0 million in procurement funding for the purchase of an existing commercially available polar icebreaker (CAPI) that would modified to become a Coast Guard polar icebreaker, so as to help augment the Coast Guard’s current polar icebreaking capacity until the new PSCs enter service, and to continue augmenting the Coast Guard’s polar icebreaking capacity after the PSCs enter service.

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23872052/coast-guard-polar-security-cutter-polar-icebreaker-program-background-and-issues-for-congress-july-10-2023.pdf

[morganism]

 Shipping

Under this section, a selection of maps representing the main features of “Arctic Shipping” is presented. Maps can be combined among them or with maps presented under other sections (as for instance Arctic Summer Sea Ice extent and “Arctic Definitions”).

https://arcticportal.org/maps/download/maps-shipping

[morganism]

New Report Sheds Light on Rapid Expansion of Arctic Shipping

A new 10-year report by the Arctic Council’s Working Group on the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) highlights a substantial increase in shipping across the Arctic Ocean.

The number of vessels operating in the Arctic increased almost 40 percent between 2013 and 2023, from 1,298 per year to 1,782. Fishing vessels remain the single largest category of ships, followed by general cargo ships and bulk carriers.

“Several reasons contribute to the increase in Arctic shipping,” said Hjalti Hreinsson, Project Manager at PAME in charge of the report. “One of them, and perhaps the most prominent one, is an increase in natural resource extraction. Compared to other marine areas worldwide, there aren’t that many ships in the Arctic, and new projects will strongly impact statistics.”

The report details traffic from two large resource projects in the Canadian and Russian Arctic.

“The Mary River Mine in Nunavut and the Yamal Gas project have led to increases in shipping in the Arctic Polar Code area. The number of bulk carriers has significantly increased as has the traffic of gas tankers, of which there were almost none in the Polar Code area prior to 2018,” explained Hreinsson.
(snip)
A previous report by PAME on ships per flag state also confirmed Russia’s dominant position in Arctic shipping. In 2022, out of 1,661 ships, 885 flew the Russian flag, followed by Norway and Denmark with 180 and 122 vessels, respectively.

Even with the uncertainty surrounding the future of Novatek’s new Arctic LNG 2 project, tonnage across the Russian Arctic waters is forecasted to expand rapidly. Official Russian figures project volumes on the NSR to reach between 117 million and 244 million tonnes by 2030.

The next major resource development to drive Arctic shipping will be Rosneft’s Vostok oil project, expected to come online in 2024. Depending on the availability of ice-class oil tankers export volumes per year could reach in excess of 100 million tonnes by 2033.

In contrast to Chinese investments in the Russian Arctic overall, its role in Arctic shipping remains limited.
(more)

https://gcaptain.com/new-report-sheds-light-on-rapid-expansion-of-arctic-shipping/


https://arctic-council.org/news/increase-in-arctic-shipping/

[morganism]

( i missed this last year, will leave for search results)


Ice-cold gloom for Russia’s new super-powerful icebreaker  March 31, 2023

Russia recently decided to build only one vessel from its super-powerful icebreaker project, not three as originally planned, and the price and construction period is expected to by far exceed original estimates.

Budgets are massively overrun and it is not clear when the 120 MW nuclear-powered vessel will be ready for sailing.

The icebreaker that has been given the name “Rossiya” will be like no other vessel ever seen in the Arctic. With a power of 120 MW it will be able to crush through 4 meter thick ice and open large lanes for escorted ships across the most difficult parts of the Northern Sea Route.

The “Lider”-class is designed to mark a watershed in Arctic shipping.

But the project is already marred by trouble. Russia recently decided to build only one vessel of the kind, not three as originally planned, and the price and construction period is expected to by far exceed original estimates.

According to newspaper Kommersant, the project could ultimately become up to 60 percent more expensive than planned. That could bring the price to 200 billion rubles (€2,4 billion).

And the icebreaker will clearly not be commissioned in 2027 as planned. By mid-March this year, only five percent of construction – not 15 percent as planned – was completed, people familiar with the project say.

Problems obtaining components

The Zvezda Yard outside Vladivostok in the Russian Far East has reportedly major problems with obtaining key building components. Hull casting and mounting arms, as well as other equipment, was originally to be delivered by the Ukrainian company Energomashspetsstal in 2022. But, paradoxically, the Ukrainian plant was destroyed by Russian bombing and has halted production.
(more)

https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2023/03/31/ice-cold-gloom-for-russias-new-super-powerful-icebreaker/



Homework forum for global boat info

https://forum.gcaptain.com/categories


edit: Aker arctic update mag, with 3 alt polar routes, and wind farms in ice country.

https://akerarctic.fi/en/arctic-passion/arctic-passion-news-25-2024/

[morganism]

China Continues to Deliver Prefabricated Modules in Support of Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 Project

Two ice-capable heavy lift vessels, Audax and Pugnax, departed China with new modules for Arctic LNG 2. The continued delivery of equipment highlights the challenge Western officials face in stopping...
highnorthnews.com


Aker Arctic
@AkerArctic Feb 25

The month-long ordeal by ice has ended: the #PolarClass3 ships Audax and Pugnax have completed their mid-winter #NorthernSeaRoute transit and are currently sailing towards Murmansk in the ice-free Barents Sea.

https://nitter.poast.org/AkerArctic/status/1763482972554924247#m

[morganism]

US sanctions keep Putin's sea ice-breaking oil tankers stuck in South Korean shipyards.

Not so fast. It is not as good news for Putin and China as Fortune implied. As the platform has arrived (The nodules came from the Zhoushan port in China) and is now interlinked in Gydan’s Utrenneye Port, the LNG Process may be ready for docking. Still, the ice-breaking tankers Pyotr Kapitsa, Leve Landau, and Zhores Alferov sit in South Korean shipyards. They are not going anywhere.

    Ever-tighter sanctions against Moscow have left a South Korean shipbuilder struggling to find buyers for specialized vessels intended to serve Russia’s newest liquefied natural gas facility, threatening to delay exports from the Arctic project.

    Russia’s Sovcomflot PJSC had ordered the vessels, specifically tailored for use at Novatek PJSC-led Arctic LNG 2 export plant above the Arctic circle, in 2020, but the contract was terminated after the invasion of Ukraine, and ownership reverted to the shipbuilder.

    South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean Co. said this week by telephone that it was still seeking an alternative shipping company eager to take the icebreaker-class gas carriers. The process was taking longer than usual due to the specialized nature of the ships, it said.

There was one ice-breaker that did make it to the Gyden peninsula. But, Six months after arrival to Ura Guba, Novatek's brand new 400-meter-long storage tanker is left in the cold

    The 400 meter long and 60 meter wide vessel arrived in Ura Guba on the Barents Sea coast in late June 2023, and appears not to have handled a single shipment of liquified natural gas.

    Judging from available shipping data, the Saam FSU has been lying idle in the remote bay ever since arrival.

    The Panama-registered unit was to serve as transshipment base for Novatek’s liquified natural gas from the Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 projects. The latter has been significantly delayed and Novatek is unlikely to get its three project trains in operation as planned.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/5/2227578/-US-sanctions-keep-Putin-s-ice-breaking-oil-tankers-stuck-in-South-Korea

http://www.traitedemanoeuvre.fr/

[morganism]

Rev. Poppy Haze 𓅋  @poppy_haze
Mar 21

 the Canadian Coast Guard uses a hovercraft as a river icebreaker, the CCGS Sipu Muin. 
The St. Lawrence river has a lot of shallows that conventional icebreakers can't go but river craft might, so the hovercraft goes anywhere