Russian tanker sails through Arctic
without icebreaker for first time
Climate change has thawed Arctic
enough for $300m gas tanker to travel at record speed through northern sea
route
The Christophe de
Margerie
The Christophe de
Margerie carried a cargo of liquefied natural gas from Hammerfest in Norway to
Boryeong in South Korea in 22 days.
Patrick Barkham
@patrick_barkham
Thursday 24 August 2017 16.51 BST First published on
Thursday 24 August 2017 16.12 BST
A Russian tanker has travelled through the northern sea
route in record speed and without an icebreaker escort for the first time,
highlighting how climate change is opening up the high Arctic.
The $300m Christophe de Margerie carried a cargo of
liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Hammerfest in Norway to Boryeong in South
Korea in 19 days, about 30% quicker than the conventional southern shipping
route through the Suez Canal.
The tanker was built to take advantage of the diminishing
Arctic sea ice and deliver gas from a new $27m facility on the Yamal Peninsula,
the biggest Arctic LNG project so far which has been championed by the Russian
president, Vladimir Putin.
On its maiden voyage, the innovative tanker used its
integral icebreaker to cross ice fields 1.2m thick, passing along the northern
sea section of the route in the Russian Arctic in a record six-and-a-half days.
“It’s very quick, particularly as there was no icebreaker
escort which previously there had been in journeys,” said Bill Spears,
spokesperson for Sovcomflot, the shipping company which owns the tanker. “It’s
very exciting that a ship can go along this route all year round.”
Environmentalists have expressed concern over the risks of
increased ship traffic in the pristine Arctic but Sovcomflot stressed the
tanker’s green credentials. As well as using conventional fuel, the Christophe
de Margerie can be powered by the LNG it is transporting, reducing its sulphur
oxide emissions by 90% and nitrous oxide emissions by 80% when powered this
way. “This is a significant factor in a fragile ecosystem,” said Spears.
The northern sea route between Siberia and the Pacific is
still closed to conventional shipping for much of the year. But the Christophe
de Margerie, the first of 15 such tankers expected to be built, extends the
navigation window for the northern sea route from four months with an expensive
icebreaker to all year round in a westerly direction.
In the route’s busiest year so far, 2013, there were only 15
international crossings but the Russian government predicts that cargo along
this route will grow tenfold by 2020. This link with the Pacific reduces its
need to sell gas through pipelines to Europe.
“There has been a steady increase in traffic in recent
years,” said Spears. “There’s always been trade along this route but it’s been
restricted a lot by the ice. It’s exciting that this route presents a much
shorter alternative than the Suez route. It’s a major saving.”
Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the University of
Southampton, said that shipping companies were making a “safe bet” in building
ships in anticipation that the northern sea route will open up. “Even if we
stopped greenhouse emissions tomorrow, the acceleration in the loss of Arctic
ice is unlikely to be reversed,” he said.
“We’ve been able to sail through the north-west passage for
several years now but the northern passage, which goes past Russia, has opened
up on and off since 2010. We’re going to see this route being used more and
more by 2020.
“The irony is that one advantage of climate change is that
we will probably use less fuel going to the Pacific.”
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