National maritime transport route of Russia. What awaits the Northern Sea Route in the 21st century? Northeast Asia on the approaches to the Northern Sea Route

Moscow, September 14 - "Vesti.Ekonomika". The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest sea route from Asia to Europe and, according to experts, after 2050 it will become accessible for year-round passage of ships without ice reinforcement. Taking this into account, today it is strategically correct to develop the NSR not only solely in the interests of the export of natural resources from the Arctic zone or “northern delivery”, but also for container transportation, notes the Frost & Sullivan company report following the results of the III Eastern Economic Forum.

In 2016, a model was developed for creating a regular Arctic container line based on the Northern Sea Route. A niche in which transportation along the NSR is more profitable than along the southern route is the transit of container cargo between the ports of North-East Asia (China, Japan, Republic of Korea) and Northern Europe (Rotterdam, Hamburg and others). Container cargo traffic on routes where the use of the NSR could potentially provide significant benefits to cargo carriers is about 455 thousand TEU.

The construction of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities and the development of infrastructure in the Arctic will lead to a significant increase in transportation along the NSR.

The transport route from Europe to Asia in northern sea latitudes became one of the key topics of discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum, which was held in Vladivostok from September 6 to 7, 2017. Problems associated with the operation of the NSR and the prospects for its development were discussed during the thematic session " Development of the Northern Sea Route. From words to deeds."

The commercial exploitation of the NSR is now in full swing, especially in the western sector (from Murmansk to the port of Sabetta), where the volume of traffic is already comparable to European ones. The growth in cargo traffic is obvious today and will continue to increase. In 2016, the volume of cargo transported along the Northern Sea Route reached a record level and amounted to almost 7.3 million tons, which is 35% more than a year earlier. The volume of dry cargo alone for infrastructure construction is 1.5 million tons per year.

The growth in cargo turnover was facilitated by the implementation of projects for the construction of the port of Sabetta and the development of gas fields in Yamal (Yamal-LNG). The increase in overall traffic also affected the growth of transit traffic along the NSR.

“By 2022, the volume of transportation will reach 40 million tons,” predicts Evgeny Ambrosov, First Deputy General Director of PJSC Sovcomflot, Vice-President of the Arctic Economic Council. “Further growth in cargo turnover will be due to the commissioning of new LNG production capacities (Arctic-LNG ", "Pechora-LNG") and the development of oil and gas fields. By 2025, about 65 million tons of hydrocarbons will be transported along the Northern Sea Route."

Commenting on the results of the session, Leonid Petukhov, General Director of the Far East Agency for Attracting Investments and Supporting Exports, emphasized: “The development of the Northern Sea Route is proceeding in all main directions: the icebreaker fleet is gradually increasing, the infrastructure is being updated, work is underway to eliminate administrative and trade barriers - “In general, conditions are being created for increasing the volume of container transportation in the medium term, and private (including foreign) investors are being attracted to participate in projects.”

Development of the icebreaker fleet

The fleet of Russia's largest shipping company, PJSC Sovcomflot, was recently replenished with three new MR class vessels (a total of 6 were built), and in August 2017, the gas carrier Christophe de Margerie (reinforced ice class Arc-7) made its first commercial voyage ), which delivered a shipment of LNG from Norway to South Korea.

The tanker crossed the NSR in a record 6.5 days without the help of an icebreaker. Christophe de Margerie is the first gas carrier in a series of 15 ships of this type planned for construction.

The initiative of PJSC Sovcomflot to build new ships using LNG as fuel has also gained momentum. According to E. Ambrosov, such a solution will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15%, nitrogen by 80%, and sulfur by 90%.

Construction of the ships will begin in 2019 at the Zvezda plant, and the first ship will leave the shipyard in 2022.

Infrastructure modernization and international cooperation

Modernization of infrastructure will also require significant investments, so in this work it is necessary to rely not only on the strengths and capabilities of Russia, but also use international cooperation.

According to Tero Vauraste, vice-chairman of the Arctic Economic Council, it is necessary to formulate investment proposals today, including for interested foreign players, and more actively attract private capital. “It is necessary to increase the investment attractiveness of the northern regions.

Today, taxpayers’ money alone is not enough for the development of the Arctic, so we need to work to increase the transparency of business,” the expert emphasizes. – I don’t think that container shipping will become the main area of ​​use of the NSR in the foreseeable future, but one way or another we need to work on eliminating trade barriers.

In the next 2-3 years, we will not be able to switch to a free trade regime, but we will cope with individual trade barriers."

Foreign companies are already showing high interest in using the Northern Sea Route. “Japan has two main interests related to the NSR. These are the diversification of transport routes between Asia and Europe and the development of the energy base,” said Shinichi Ishii, senior consultant at JSC Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. “The Hokkaido government has a program to participate in NSR, and in the future Hokkaido intends to become a gateway to the NSR."

Development of communication support in the Arctic

“Over several years of work in the Arctic, we have managed to reduce transportation costs per freight ton by about 40%,” said D. Purim. “This is due not only to increased coordination, quality of work and planning, but also to the introduction of information technology.” He also admitted that “the main driver of development of the Arctic, the undisputed mainstream, is the implementation of hydrocarbon projects, but the development of information products is very important for small and medium-sized businesses: “If there was accessible Internet in the Arctic, this would be a serious factor in reducing the cost of all Arctic logistics ".

Dmitry Gudimenko, CEO of Capital Development Group, emphasized that the broadband Internet cable project from Europe to Asia is already at the high readiness stage. “The project is showing good profitability in the short term,” he believes. “One of the key issues today is the involvement of major players in the project, such as Facebook, Google and Chinese communications companies.”

Ice melting factor and monitoring of ice conditions

The reduction of ice cover in the Arctic will also open up new opportunities for trans-Arctic shipping through the NSR. As the ice recedes, Arctic routes will become shorter and faster.

It is expected that with the current trend, by 2030 the Arctic will be completely ice-free during the warm season: in this case, cargo ships will be able to resort to icebreakers less often, and navigation will be open for at least 6 months a year. The reduction in ice area in summer and autumn makes the Northern Sea Route more attractive for sea container transportation.

“On average, ice thickness decreases by 13% per decade,” says Riccardo Valentini, professor at the University of Tuscia (Italy) and head of the European Mediterranean Climate Change Center. “The accuracy of marine forecasts, ice conditions and seasonal risks needs to be improved.”

According to Kirill Golokhvast, Vice-Rector for Scientific Affairs of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), in the near future, with the support of the Association of Polar Explorers, a situational Arctic center ("Arctic Campus") will be created in Arkhangelsk, which will provide online visualization of the fleet deployment and accessible cargo base, will make it possible to predict the most optimal routes for ships based on current information about ice conditions and forecasts for its changes, as well as predict the cost of Arctic logistics.

Creation of SMP management company

As a result, companies are faced with the need to interact with a number of counterparties, including ministries, local ports, and companies providing agency and bunkering services. Questions also arise related to the quality of local services.

As Vasily Grudev, Investment Director of the Far East Agency for Attracting Investments and Export Support, noted, in April 2017, the Russian Government instructed to study issues related to the possibility of creating a special structure for managing the NSR.

The creation of a management company, D. Purim believes, will make it possible to provide services to businesses in a “one-stop shop” mode and, as a result, eliminate a number of existing administrative barriers: “But it is important that the management company does not interfere in those segments that the business itself can handle” .

Vladimir Korchanov, first vice-president of the transport company FESCO, agrees with him, noting that the presence of a counterparty in the form of a management company will contribute to the development of the eastern sector of the NSR, optimization of logistics schemes and increased navigation safety. “We currently have no problems with shipping along the NSR routes. Problems begin on the shore and are related to obtaining permits for unloading cargo and crews, etc.,” the expert concluded.

The thematic session "Development of the Northern Sea Route. From words to deeds" took place on September 6, 2017 within the framework of the 3rd Eastern Economic Forum with the assistance and support of the ANO "Far East Agency for Attracting Investments and Supporting Exports".

The discussion brought together industry professionals - representatives of domestic and foreign scientific organizations, as well as managers and top managers of oil and gas, shipbuilding and transport companies from Russia, Japan, South Korea, China, the Netherlands, etc. Among them was First Deputy General Director of PJSC Sovcomflot Evgeniy Ambrosov, Chairman of the Arctic Economic Council Tero Vauraste, First Vice President of FESCO Vladimir Korchanov, CEO of Damen Shipyards Group NV Rene Berkvens, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and head of the European Mediterranean Center for Climate Change Riccardo Valentini, etc. The session was also attended by Alexander Dyukov, Chairman of the Board and General Director of PJSC Gazprom Neft.

At the end of the discussion, the moderator of the session, managing director of the Russian representative office of Frost & Sullivan Alexey Volostnov and general director of the ANO "Agency of the Far East for attracting investments and supporting exports" Leonid Petukhov signed an Agreement on coordinating activities to improve the conditions for the implementation of the "Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Far East to 2020, effectively ensuring and providing real assistance to the development of the Northern Sea Route."

The NSR runs along the Siberian coast, connecting the Far Eastern and Russian ports and the mouths of northern rivers into one single shipping transport system. On the eastern side the NSR is limited by the Bering Strait, on the western side by the meridian located just north of Cape Zhelaniya.

Important: the total length of the NSR is 5600 km.

Main ports of the Northern Sea Route

• Dixon;
• Dudinka;
• Igarka;
• Providence Bay;
• Tiksi;
• Pevek.

Today, an economic project is being implemented aimed at converting the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky into a port hub of the Northern Route. It occupies a very advantageous trunk position, which will allow P-K to become an important transport hub between Northern Europe and the Pacific region. In addition, the Petropavlovsko-Kamchatka port, as a component of the Northern Sea Route, has other advantages:

• year-round navigation;
• ice-free bay;
• possibility of accumulation, storage and sorting of cargo.

Important: In recent years, all NSR ports have been actively reconstructed, this allows them to receive a large amount of international cargo (accordingly, increase the traffic flow of ships passing through the Northern Mainline).

Natural conditions of the Northern Sea Route in Russia

It is worth noting that all the seas that are part of the NSR are characterized by an extremely harsh climate. Thus, average monthly summer temperatures within the Northern Route do not rise above +7 degrees, and winter temperatures reach -33 - -35 degrees.

The NSR seas have a shelf zone, the depth of which does not exceed 200 m.

In addition to the cold climate, the NSR has another natural feature - the presence of ice along the entire route of ships. At the same time, the ice situation on most sections of the routes is extremely unstable and is characterized by interannual variability.

In winter, the NSR is exposed to anticyclonic air masses; in summer, the atmospheric circulation is opposite to winter, but this does not entail significant climate changes.

Back in the 11th century, according to reliable historical data, Novgorod people reached the Icy Sea. The Dvina mayor, Uleb, in 1032 mastered the first NSR, stretching from the Kara Gate to Novaya Zemlya.

In search of new goods for Novgorod, researchers (Pomors) moved further and further north. They opened the sea route to Kolguev, Vaygach, Novaya Zemlya and other islands.

Important: It was the Pomors who discovered most of the Arctic lands on their kochas, so we can safely say that they began the active development of the Northern Sea Route.

In the second half of the 16th century, British explorers tried to find access to the coast of South and East Asia in the north, and tried to cross the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic lands. The first two expeditions reached the island of Novaya Zemlya, the third reached Kara Bay. True, due to the active movement of glacial masses, the sailors did not advance further - they turned the ships around and returned to their homeland.

The achievements of the British haunted the Dutch sailors. So, in 1594 they reached Yamal, and a year later they entered the Kara Sea (they were forced, like their predecessors, to return back).

Only the third Dutch expedition managed to reach Spitsbergen, Bear Island, round the island of Novaya Zemlya and enter the Kara Sea. Unfortunately, the explorers' ships were crushed by glaciers, and they themselves spent the winter at a latitude of 76 degrees.

For the first time, the practical significance of the NSR as a transport route was voiced by the Russian diplomat and political figure Dmitry Gerasimov in 1525. Both D. Mendeleev and M. Lomonosov worked on this topic.

Later, in 1732, Empress Anna issued a decree according to which V. Bering was to go to Kamchatka to develop new lands (the coast of Siberia). The expedition organized by the researcher was called the Great Northern, and had no equal in history in terms of the strategic significance of the tasks assigned.

Thus, 977 participants in the expedition (most of them died) managed not only to examine, but also to map the entire Russian oceanic coast.

The results of subsequent Russian expeditions cast doubt on the possibility of navigation in the Kara Sea, but already in the 90s of the 19th century this myth was refuted.

For the first time, the entire NSR route was traversed by a Swedish expedition led by the famous explorer Nordenskiöld in 1879.

The advent of icebreakers, the invention of radio, and the emergence of the steam fleet led to the fact that the Northern Route as a transport route received further development. Since the 20s of the 20th century, Kara expeditions were resumed, and later shipping voyages from Vladivostok to Kolyma became a permanent practice.

Important: December 17, 1932 is considered the date of the official opening of the NSR as a transport route.

Since then, research into the Far North has become regular and focused. During the Second World War, the Northern Route was extremely important for the Soviet Union - warships were sailed along it, the fleet received coal, and the country's industry received timber, nickel, and copper.

The first foreign ships entered the NSR only in 1991. Unfortunately, this did not become an impetus for the active use of the transport route in international trade. The thing is that the coastal route is riddled with a huge number of straits and has shallow waters, which is unacceptable for large-capacity vessels.

In addition, the NSR is characterized by unstable ice conditions, which also negatively affects the “popularity” of this sea route.

One cannot miss the fact that since the beginning of the 21st century, the Northern Route has become increasingly important for transport companies involved in the transportation of sea cargo. Thus, previously the main international waterway connecting European countries with the Far East was the Suez Canal. But recently the situation has begun to change radically.

Thus, according to long-term forecasts of experts, despite certain difficulties in organizing cargo transportation, their volumes will reach 35 million tons/year by 2020. This, in turn, will require not only additional scientific research, but also an expansion of Russia's naval presence in this region.

Important: A positive natural factor that is attracting increasing attention to the NSR as a transport route is global warming. The area of ​​Arctic ice over the past 30 years has decreased by almost half, this, in turn, has contributed to an increase in navigation in the northern seas (now ships can sail along the NSR from June to November, previously the period was limited to July-September).

There are other factors that make the Northern Route more attractive than the Suez Canal. Thus, the delivery time for cargo through the Northern Sea Route extends to 48 days; when moving through the Northern Sea Route, this term is reduced to 35 days. Accordingly, the reduced travel time of ships entails fuel savings and a reduction in transport costs. There are no fees for the passage of ships or a queue (as in the Suez Canal) in the NSR; only an icebreaker fee has been introduced.

Additional advantages of the Northern Highway:

• Somali pirates attack ships off the coast of Africa; there is no such problem in Arctic waters;
• There are no restrictions on the tonnage and size of sea vessels.

The Russian government has adopted a project for the comprehensive development of the Northern Route in the coming years. Thus, it has been established that today the NSR is the shortest sea route connecting Europe and the Far East, which is not used to its full potential. The NSR ensures, among other things, the security of Russia, as it provides access to the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Since today gas, oil, timber, copper and nickel produced in the north are transported through the NSR, the strategic importance of this highway is beyond any doubt.

The importance of the NSR as a unique transport artery is determined by economic needs and the need for industrial development of the Arctic region. This is an important factor in ensuring the economic security and national geopolitics of the country.

The NSR plays a role in the development of a number of Russian regions connected to the Arctic Ocean by large rivers (Ob, Indigirka, Yenisei, Kolyma). In addition, the Northern Route affects the economy and transport connections of the northeastern part of Russia (the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Chukotka, Magadan).

So, the NSR is a strategic sea transport route that plays an important role in the development of the economy of the Russian Federation. This is a waterway that allows for international trade, ensuring the security of the state and fully developing the Arctic region.

The A-Service company offers cargo delivery services on a regular annual basis to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug along the Northern Sea Route. We carry out delivery to the port points of the Northern Sea Route, as well as unloading on the unequipped shore of the coast of Chukotka Island. Boiler room m. Schmidt, Kamchatka, Kuril Islands.

A significant part of the coastal points of the Arctic and Far East, where cargo delivery is required, are not ports, but unequipped shores. Some of them are located at a considerable distance from the base ports. For most of these points, the only mode of transport is sea.

Find out the cost of transportation

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We accept for transportation

• general, bulk and dangerous cargo;
• food products and supply cargo;
• building materials and structures;
• 20 and 40 foot containers, refrigerated containers from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok;
• oversized and heavy equipment;
• groupage cargo;
• machine parts, modules, industrial equipment;
• metal structures and building materials;
• passenger cars and special equipment;

We offer cargo delivery to the Far North regions as part of summer navigation along the route Arkhangelsk port - Pevek port, along the Northern Sea Route. This route allows us to reduce the cost of transporting goods to our clients from Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities in the European part of the country.

Professional relationships with shipowners and freight brokers on the market allow our company to offer high-quality services for chartering sea vessels.

Navigation periods are: in Pevek - from July to October, in Provideniya - from July to November, in Beringovsky and Egvekinot - from July to early and mid-October, in Anadyr - from July to October.

Completed projects

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Northern Sea Route

Northern Sea Route– one of the most promising areas in modern Russian logistics. This is the shortest sea route between the European part of Russia and the Far East. The NSR serves the ports of the Arctic (including the Sabetta port under construction) and large rivers of Siberia. The Russian section of the international transport corridor extends along the northern coast of the Russian Federation from Murmansk to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The Northern Sea Route is a complex of several shipping routes. The extent is not constant and depends on seasonal changes in the thickness and location of Arctic ice. More than 70 major ports and points are known.

NSR - characterized as “a single national transport route of Russia in the Arctic”

V.V. Putin

The Northern Route runs through the seas of the Arctic and Pacific (partial) oceans. These are the Kara, East Siberian, Barents, Bering and Chukchi seas, the Laptev Sea. The path runs along the coast of Siberia. The routes connect Russian and Far Eastern ports and the mouths of Siberian navigable rivers into one transport system.

Main ports of the Northern Sea Route

Key ports of the Northern Sea Route

• Dixon;
• Igarka;

The sea ports of Chukotka, except for the port of Anadyr, do not have their own medium- and large-tonnage fleet; their main task is to process cargo arriving in two directions: western (from Murmansk and Arkhangelsk) and eastern (from Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Vanino, Magadan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky , ports of Sakhalin).

Pevek seaport

• Location: Chaunsky district of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
• General characteristics: services for unloading and loading sea transport vessels, agency services, transportation of general and bulk cargo within the Chaunskaya Bay.

Anadyr sea port

• Location: Anadyrsky district of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
• General characteristics: services for unloading and loading sea transport vessels, agency services; river transportation of general, bulk, liquid cargo to points in the upper reaches of the Anadyr and Kanchalan rivers of the Anadyr region, intra-estuary transportation of goods.

Beringovsky commercial seaport

• Location: located in the southern part of the Bering Sea in the northwestern part of Ugolnaya Bay on the territory of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
• General characteristics: offshore cargo handling port, transshipment of incoming/outgoing cargo, transportation of goods between the ports of Eastern Chukotka. In particular, the main activities include processing and servicing of transport vessels, storage of cargo in port warehouses.

Provideniya seaport

• Location: located in the eastern part of the Chukotka Peninsula on the western shore of Komsomolskaya Bay.
• General characteristics: specializes in processing general, bulk cargo arriving during the navigation period, there are two berths for processing.

Seaport of Egvekinot

• Location: Iultinsky district of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
• General characteristics: loading and unloading operations, transportation of goods by our own fleet, warehouse operations with goods.

Why did we choose this direction

An alternative route is through the Suez or Panama Canals. Moreover, the distance from the port of Murmansk to Yokohama (Japan) via Suez is 12,840 nautical miles. Along the Northern Sea Route this distance is only 5,770 nautical miles. The distance from the port of Economy (Arkhangelsk) to the port of Pevek is 2500 nautical miles.

The average travel time along the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk to Pevek is 10-16 days, depending on ice conditions.

The main users of the Northern Sea Route in Russia today are Norilsk Nickel, Gazprom, Lukoil, Rosneft, Rosshelf. Already in 2013, the volume of transportation along the NSR amounted to 1.35 million tons. In 2014, it is planned to transport about 5 million tons, and in the future to increase this figure to 50 million tons per year. These are huge numbers and amounts of cargo.

Benefits of using the Northern Sea Route

• reducing travel time reduces personnel costs and reduces the cost of vessel freight;
• fuel economy;
• there is no payment for vessel passage (icebreaking dues are paid);
• there are no queues;
• there is no risk of attack by pirates;
• There is no limit on the size of vessels.

Transportation along the Northern Sea Route is growing due to the development of offshore fields

The volume of Russian cargo transported along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 2014 amounted to 3.7 million tons. The main increase was provided by the port of Sabetta, which is under construction, where over 1 million tons of cargo were delivered. According to experts, the volumes could have been even greater if the Arctic zone had been properly managed. The fact is that new infrastructure in the NSR waters is currently being built mainly for the development of Arctic deposits and the removal of raw materials from there. However, the administrative “panels” of this process are chaotically scattered, there is no single body, so the territories are developing slowly.

The quality of infrastructure and Arctic ports leaves much to be desired, hence the low demand for the route from shippers.

This is evidenced by the reduction in transit cargo traffic, which last year decreased by almost 80%, to 274 thousand tons. Of these, actual transit accounted for less than a third, the rest being transportation by Russian companies registered in offshore companies. Apparently, foreigners tried it and didn't like it.

Recent history

Let us recall that after the collapse of the USSR, the first transit passage along the Northern Sea Route of a foreign commercial vessel, accompanied by Russian nuclear icebreakers, took place in 2009. The starting point of the route was then South Korea. Two ships, escorted by the icebreakers “50 Let Pobedy” and “Russia”, proceeded along the NSR to their destination port in Nigeria. Travel time was reduced by 10 days compared to the route through the Suez Canal.

In 2013, a commercial ship from China sailed along the NSR for the first time.

As for last year’s transit, according to Rosmorrechflot, of the 274.3 thousand tons of cargo that traveled along the NSR, only 72.5 thousand tons belonged to the Danish shipper Nordic Bulk Carriers. The coal was traveling from the Canadian port of Vancouver to the Finnish Pori. The rest of the transit volume belonged to Russian companies with foreign jurisdiction. This was mainly fuel oil from Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Vysotsk and Ust-Luga, transported to the Far East.

In export traffic, active transportation along the NSR began in 2010, when the Sovcomflot company conducted an experimental voyage of the SCF Baltika tanker with the support of a nuclear icebreaker.

Since 2010, Norilsk Nickel has also been shipping metal (nickel, copper, cobalt) via the NSR to China and South Korea, using its own icebreaker fleet. Last year, exports from the port of Dudinka amounted to almost 810 thousand tons

If we look at the dynamics of transportation over the past 5 years, then in 2010 four vessels passed along the NSR route (between Cape Zhelaniya and Cape Dezhnev), and in 2011. – 34, in 2012 – 46, in 2013 – 71 ships, and last year their number decreased to 31. Experts explain this by a decrease in shipments of coal, oil, gas and metals due to a drop in demand and a decrease in their prices in the world. In addition, cheap fuel allowed companies not to save money and transport cargo along the traditional route through the Indian Ocean - it takes longer, but is more reliable than along the NSR.

At the same time, the volume of cabotage transportation of goods sent for the development of shelf fields and the construction of Arctic ports is growing annually.

Northern transshipment

Currently, there are over 20 ports operating on the NSR. The leader is Sabetta in Yamal. The port was built in record time, in just 2 years. The main goal is the removal of LNG from the fields of NOVATEK. After 2017, cargo turnover there will be about 17 million tons, with subsequent expansion to 30 million tons per year.

As for Sabetta’s contribution to the overall development of the Northern Sea Route, the port is specialized, while there is no capacity there for transshipment of other cargo, and it is not intended to receive a large number of ships traveling along the Arctic route. At the same time, according to the Governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Dmitry Kobylkin, new northern ports create healthy competition and increase the load on the Northern Sea Route. This year, the federal government will allocate 71.2 billion rubles for the construction of facilities at the Sabetta seaport and the creation of a shipping access canal in the Gulf of Ob. The funds will be received within the framework of the Federal Target Program “Development of the Russian Transport System (2010-2020)”.

However, NOVATEK’s Yamal LNG is not the only project currently being implemented by Russian resource companies in the Arctic. in 2014, the number of projects there increased significantly. Almost all of them use port transshipment to export products. As already mentioned, MMC Norilsk Nickel operates in Dudinka, which, in addition to the Northern Sea Route, ships products to the Yenisei in the summer. In addition, Gazprom commissioned a second field in Bovanenkovo ​​on Yamal, and also began oil production at the Prirazlomnoye field in the Pechora Sea. Several tankers left there last year. Rosneft began drilling a well in the Kara Sea. Bashneft and LUKOIL launched an oil production enterprise in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug at the field named after. Trebs and Titov.

In addition, two mining deposits are currently being prepared for development in Chukotka - coal (Bering Basin with reserves of 4.2 billion tons of coking coal) and polymetallic (Baimskaya ore zone). Last year, Rosmorport signed an agreement with the Beringtransugol company on cooperation in the design of facilities provided for by the project for the construction of a specialized coal terminal in the seaport of Beringovsky. Last summer, Australian coal company Tigers Realm Coal purchased a coal terminal in the Bering port for $5.1 million. The port and terminal are located 35 km northeast of the Amaam deposit in the Bering coal basin, 80% of which is owned by the Australian company. The Bering port is located in Ugolnaya Bay in the northern part of the Bering Sea on the southwestern shore of the Gulf of Anadyr. Now the port's throughput capacity is 252 thousand tons. in 2013, 54.6 thousand tons passed through the port. By 2017, it is planned to increase cargo turnover there to 1.1 million tons per year. Coal mining in the Bering coal basin in Chukotka will begin in 2015–2018. Tigers Realm Coal plans to stage-by-stage development of a quarry, a highway, a railway line, and the construction of a port complex in the Amaam Bay area.

State Duma deputies also propose to build a port in Indiga Bay in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug on the coast of the Barents Sea. The fact is that not far from the bay there are the Kumzhinskoye and Korovinskoye gas condensate fields with gas reserves of more than 160 billion cubic meters, which have not yet been developed due to the lack of transport infrastructure. Here, as in Sabetta, a liquefied natural gas plant may appear, and in the future it is planned that the port’s capacity will be about 30 million tons.

As you can see, the sources of growth in cargo turnover along the NSR are Arctic raw materials projects. The Ministry of Natural Resources is responsible for issuing licenses for mineral deposits there. until recently, the department was headed by Yuri Trutnev, who is now the plenipotentiary representative of the president in the Far Eastern Federal District. In fact, he and the regional administrations of the district oversee issues related to the NSR.

Management is lame

Currently, the land territories of the Arctic zone are the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, the Nenets, Chukotka, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Vorkuta (Komi Republic), Norilsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory), as well as lands and islands located in the Arctic Ocean. According to Senator Igor Chernyshenko, after the dissolution of the Ministry of Regional Development last year, real state management of the Arctic was actually abolished, and tasks to solve the problems of the Arctic zone spread across various departments and regional administrations. They all work well individually, but the overall result is not the best.

Thus, the Ministry of Transport, or more precisely Rosmorrechflot, is responsible for the reconstruction and development of ports in the Arctic region, the development of navigation safety systems, search and rescue support and emergency preparedness.

To date, the department has prepared a regulatory framework regulating the navigation of ships in the waters of the Northern Sea Route. In particular, navigation rules, the amount of fees for icebreaker support of ships, a system for issuing permits were approved, and changes were made to the legislation to ensure safety at offshore transport infrastructure facilities. In addition, daily monitoring of the location of ships located on the NSR is ensured. All this is handled by the Federal State Institution “Administration of the Northern Sea Route”, created in 2013.

As the federal agency notes, these measures are a response to the increase in cargo transportation volumes. At the same time, with the realistically possible volume of transit flow from Asia-Pacific countries to Europe and back, only 5–7% of the transit potential is used. The underdevelopment of the port infrastructure is a hindrance, as well as the shallow depths on traditional routes, which do not allow the use of large-capacity vessels with a draft of more than 15 m. The depth of the Sannikov and Dmitry Laptev straits is approximately 12.4 and 9 m, respectively. In this regard, Rosmorrechflot is conducting research on changing existing routes to deeper ones.

As for state funding, according to the Ministry of Transport, in the development of Arctic ports the main focus will be on Murmansk. It is also planned to develop Khatanga, Tiksi, Pevek, Anadyr and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

As part of the implementation of the Federal Target Program “Economic and Social Development of the Far East and the Baikal Region for the Period until 2018,” the volume of budget funding is about 20.5 billion rubles. Part of this money should be allocated to modernize the port infrastructure of Chukotka, Kamchatka, Magadan and Sakhalin. As noted in the transport department, the ports available there do not meet modern safety requirements, have great physical and moral wear and tear, and accordingly they will receive money.

In addition to ports, shipbuilders also receive budget funding.

Fleet

Let us recall that the country currently operates six nuclear icebreakers, one container ship with a reactor plant, four maintenance vessels and four diesel-electric icebreakers.

In recent years, a decision was made to build three new nuclear icebreakers. The first of them has been built since 2013 at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg for the Ministry of Transport. Two other contracts also belong to this enterprise, but the customer is Atomflot.

Construction of the first icebreaker should be completed in 2017. The commissioning dates for the second and third are 2019 and 2020, respectively. The new icebreakers will be more powerful and versatile; they will be able to sail not only along the Northern Sea Route, but also at the mouths of Siberian rivers.

In addition, three more diesel-electric icebreakers are currently being built for the Ministry of Transport - two at the Vyborg Shipyard and one at a shipyard in Finland. Financing amounts to approximately 30 billion rubles (8 - nuclear, over 20 - diesel-electric). The money is allocated within the framework of the Federal Target Program “Development of the Russian Transport System (2010–2020).”

It should be noted that there is a shortage of icebreaking capacity in the country. For example, five icebreakers are constantly operating in the Arctic basin. In particular, the nuclear icebreakers Taimyr and Yamal escort ships to the seaport of Sabetta. The icebreaker Tor operates in the port waters. In the seaport of Dudinka, icebreaking operations are carried out by the icebreaker "Dudinka", owned by MMC "Norilsk Nickel", and the nuclear icebreaker "Vaigach" escorts ships to the port. Reserve vessels should also be based in the water area, but in winter most Russian ports freeze, and icebreaker assistance is required to transport goods. There are not enough icebreakers for all of them. For example, during the navigation of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, during the period when the Sea of ​​Azov froze, there were no escort vessels, and many cargoes were trapped in the ice.

However, even the existing problems do not deter the authorities of the Arctic territories from developing the Northern Sea Route. It should be noted that regional administrations of coastal regions are also components of a disparate complex of Arctic management. They should primarily be interested in replenishing the treasury through the implementation of large projects on their territory. However, experts do not exclude the usual Russian practice of promoting the interests of private companies by officials of various ranks.

Containers in ice

In addition to oil and gas, as well as metals and coal, currently exported from Arctic ports, containers may appear on the NSR in the near future. The Murmansk region and the Kamchatka region are planning to create a container line between the ports of Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, respectively.

According to their calculations, transporting containers via the northern route will be cheaper and shorter than using the Trans-Siberian Railway. For this purpose, a container terminal must be built in the Murmansk region to service the line. According to the first vice-governor of the region, Alexey Tyukavin, the project plans to use the refrigeration capacity of the Murmansk fish terminal, which can receive fish supplied from the Far East. For comparison, the cost of delivering a 20-foot container on the Moscow-Murmansk-Vladivostok route will be $2081 versus $4431 via the Trans-Siberian Railway, while the delivery time will be reduced by 5 days. According to officials' calculations, the transportation distance for the Moscow-Vladivostok-Petropavlovsk route will be 6,342 km for the route via the Trans-Siberian Railway (including 1,322 km by sea and 5,020 km by rail), and when traveling along the Northern Sea Route along the Moscow-Murmansk-Petropavlovsk route - 5,385 km (including 4325 km by sea and 1060 km by rail). The catch is that now there are restrictions on the railway approaches to Murmansk that do not allow increasing the port's cargo turnover. However, according to the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov, in September 2014, construction began on new access routes, railway infrastructure, and the development of the entire left bank of the Kola Bay, which will give a completely different meaning to Murmansk as an outpost, as a gateway to the Northern Sea Route.

Another problem hindering the implementation of the container project is the lack of ports between Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The distance between them is about 8 thousand km and the ships have nowhere to go in emergency situations.

According to officials’ forecasts, the first experimental voyage could be made by the nuclear-powered lighter-container carrier “Sevmorput” as early as 2016. This ship, built in the USSR, was restored by Rosatom in 2013. Subsequently, it is planned to put new ice-class container ships on the line. According to experts, at first the container line could rent a fleet in South Korea, and then the operator could purchase the vessels as ownership. As the head of the laboratory of the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yuri Shcherbanin, told Transport, transportation of containers along the NSR was carried out in Soviet times, there is nothing new here. “But opening a line in this direction is not at all easy, because ships must sail regularly and exactly on schedule. It’s unlikely that the cargo base between Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky allows us to talk about linear shipping,” he explained. Rather, we are talking about pilot flights and experimental cargo transportation.

In general, Kamchatka wants to become a large logistics center on the NSR route. The regional authorities hope to be included in the list of pilot entities where priority development areas will be created using budget money. As part of the project in the Kamchatka Territory, it is planned to create a ship repair center for the civil fleet, build bunkering and container terminals in the port and create infrastructure so that ships calling at the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky have the opportunity to undergo service and repair.

At the entrances

As for access to Arctic ports, there are only two options - along Siberian rivers and by rail. At the same time, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk are considered as junctions with the NSR. They provide for the development and strengthening of railway approaches: the existing Volkhovstroy-Murmansk direction and the promising Belkomur railway line. A new Murmashi-Lavna railway line is also being designed, leading to marine terminals located on the western shore of the Kola Bay.

According to the Presidential Envoy to the Urals Federal District Boris Kirillov, the Salekhard-Nadym line along the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains should connect the mineral-rich North and the industrial Urals. On the one hand, it will allow gas to be exported from Yamal towards the Sverdlovsk railway. On the other hand, the export of export products via the NSR to the Asia-Pacific countries through the port of Sabetta is ensured. In his opinion, under favorable circumstances, by 2017 it is possible to complete the construction of the road, which began in September 2011 with the construction of a bridge across the Nadym River. The initiator of the project is NOVATEK with the participation of Gazprom, as well as the government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The Arctic Shipping Company delivers goods to European and Asian countries using the Northern Sea Route. This shipping route allows you to reduce the time and cost of cargo transportation. We also service all Arctic ports and transport coastal and export cargo.

The specificity of transportation routes along the Northern Sea Route to the Arctic and other ports lies in the need to overcome difficult weather conditions. The latitudes at which the seas of the Arctic Ocean are located create certain difficulties for sailors. First of all, it is ice that covers a large surface of water from May to October. Only Arkhangelsk and Murmansk - key ports and transshipment bases on the route - can be visited year-round without icebreaker escort.

Cargo transportation to the Arctic along the Northern Sea Route includes flights along the coast of the Barents, White, and Kara seas. We visit port points on the coast of the Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi Seas. We deliver to any island of the Far North.

The use of this route for traveling between the ports of Asia and Europe makes it possible to reduce the time for transporting goods by more than half. Sending cargo along the Northern Sea Route from Arctic ports is the main specialization of our company.

According to the administration of the Northern Sea Route, the volume of cargo transportation along this route is growing every year and the main demand is for transportation routes to Dudinka, Sabetta and the ports of the Gulf of Ob. Oil, gas and timber are extracted here and sent for export.

Transport along the Northern Sea Route from the Arctic operates mainly during the summer navigation period. This is due to the difficulty of swimming in ice. However, our company has its own ice fleet, which allows us to visit even the most extreme northern points, where military bases and polar stations are located, to carry out supplies.

The geography of transportation to the Arctic along the Northern Sea Route covers all settlements on the coast of the mainland from the Kara Gate to the Chukchi Sea. Thanks to this route, ships travel freely from Murmansk to Vladivostok, visiting all Arctic ports. The main customers chartering the vessels are companies that have received licenses for the development of oil and gas fields, as well as military units based in the Arctic.

We visit all key ports, delivering any cargo from the Arctic via the Northern Sea Route - bulk, bulk, general, container, equipment and machinery. Using all types of transport, we collect cargo from different points in Russia, consolidate it in Murmansk or Arkhangelsk and await shipment to the ports of the Far North. Logistics of transportation along the Northern Sea Route is the creation of an optimal transport route, taking into account climate and seasonal changes. Despite the fact that most Arctic villages on the coast do not have ports for receiving large-capacity vessels, we unload even onto an unequipped shore. For many islands, the sea route is the only way to regularly communicate with the continent, and responsible delivery of goods is a condition for the survival of people in the Far North.

We work to create the most comfortable conditions for the customer. The use of modern technologies in the equipment of ships, seamen with extensive experience in the Arctic and well-designed transport schemes allow us to deliver any cargo in a timely manner.