The promised record number of vessels using the Northern Sea Route between Europe and Asia seems to be somewhat delayed. In course of the two first months of sailing, only nine vessels of different types have taken the journey.
If the sailing season lasts as long as it did in 2011, there might still be time to break last year’s record of 34 vessels and 820.000 tons of cargo.
Nuclear-powered icebreakers have been escorting vessels in transit between Europe and Asia in convoys this summer, as opposed to earlier seasons, where they followed one ship at the time, a press release from the operator of Russia’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers Rosatomflot reads.
According to Rosatomflot, there have been nine vessels in transit on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) so far this summer.
Here is a summary:
The first two vessels to sail the NSR this season were Murmansk Shipping Company’s tankers “Indiga” and “Varzuga”, who transported diesel.
The bulk carriers “Nordic Odyssey” and “Nordic Orion” sailed from Murmansk to ports in China with respectively 67.160 and 65.937 tons of iron ore concentrate for the company Evrokhim.
The tankers “Marilee” and “Palva” each transported 60.000 tons of gas condensate to South Korea for the company Novatek.
The tanker “Stena Poseidon” was escorted from South Korea to Finland. It carried 66.416 tons of kerosene.
Also the tugboat “Vengeri” and the Chinese icebreaker “Xuelong” have been escorted along the NSR by Rosatomflot’s icebreakers.
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Kim N. Gabrielli 