A record amount of transit cargo (1 million 280 thousand tons) was transported along the Northern Sea Route this year until November 1.
This was reported by the press service of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Administration of the Northern Sea Route”, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The previous record was achieved in 2012 – 1 million 200 thousand tons,” the press service clarified.
A transit voyage means the movement of a vessel from the western to the eastern border of the Northern Sea Route or vice versa - from the eastern to the western border without carrying out cargo operations at ports and points of the Northern Sea Route.
The total volume of cargo transportation for 9 months of 2020 amounted to 24,5 million tons. Liquefied natural gas is mainly transported, and companies that produce it are provided with a number of tax preferences. The state is investing 110 billion rubles in the development of the region’s infrastructure.
Let us remind you that Russia does not have the right to take money for the passage of civilian ships along the Northern Sea Route, but is obliged to ensure their safety. Therefore, shipowners hire Rosatom icebreakers.
At the end of October, the largest ship of the Norwegian Coast Guard (a NATO member country), the icebreaker KV Svalbard, entered the Laptev Sea following the Northern Sea Route in the exclusive economic zone of Russia. Norwegian authorities have completed a full range of notification measures to ensure the unhindered passage of their icebreaker to the Beaufort Sea, where it must remove several sensors installed last year to measure temperature.
The navigation season on the Northern Sea Route is getting longer and ports are being revived. In the future, Russia intends to create a system of year-round pilotage of ships. To this end, the first icebreaker of the new Leader class is being built at the Zvezda shipyard in the Far East.