Environment & Energy

hatrack

(59,565 posts) Mon Feb 1, 2021, 09:27 AM Feb 2021

Russian Companies Pat Themselves On The Back As Superships Transit Northern Sea Route In Mid-January

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At the time, much of the world was consumed by US events leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration, as well as the pandemic. Yet, the passing of the two tankers at Far North from opposite sides of Eurasia – each without an icebreaker – edged cargo shipping towards year-round movement from both ends of the Northern Sea Route. The Nikolay Zubov had left the Chinese port city of Dalian on Christmas Day, while the Christophe de Margerie was travelling east from northwest Siberia towards Cape Dezhnev, the Eurasian continent’s eastern extreme, as reported by Arctic newspaper Barents Observer.

Now the Christophe de Margerie’s arrival in January at Cape Dezhnev means that the window for goods transportation can be extended by up to two months, according to the Russian transport ministry. This, it hopes, will help develop the “transit potential” of the route, a key artery linking Asia-Pacific markets to the $27-billion Sabetta LNG port and its 26.5-trillion m3 onshore gas fields on northwest Siberia’s remote Yamal Peninsula.

Even more buoying for the Kremlin and Yamal LNG Project shareholders – that is, Russian natural gas producer Novatek (50.1%), fossil-fuel giant Total (20%), China’s National Petroleum Corporation (20%) and that country’s Silk Road Fund (9.9%) – is how favourably the Northern Sea Route seems to compare with the Suez Canal.

It took the Christophe de Margerie just under 11 days to cover 2,500 nautical miles between Sabetta and Cape Dezhnev at an average speed of 9.5 knots, despite ice conditions and limited visibility, says the ministry. Carrying a similar consignment via the Suez could take up to 35 days. Carbon-dioxide savings on the Sabetta-Cape Dezhnev route amount to “3,000 tons or 30%”, claims the vessel’s owner, Russian shipping company Sovcomflot. CEO Igor Tonkovidov praised the route for “providing economic efficiency” and “significant reduction in the carbon footprint of cargo transportation”, while Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev lauded the tanker’s Cape Dezhnev arrival as “another important page” in the development of the Northern Sea Route.

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https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-01-31-young-people-are-in-big-trouble-if-the-future-is-gas-james-hansen-father-of-climate-change-awareness/