The first tanker has set off this navigation season along the Northern Sea Route. It was loaded with Russian oil at a Baltic port.
The tanker Viktor Bakayev is loaded with oil in Primorsk and is heading for Asia via the NSR, the shortest route, which saves time and costs. The ship left the Baltic port on 21 July. On 29 July, the tanker was sailing through the Barents Sea off the coast of Russia.
The ship does not indicate its final destination, but it is obvious that it will be China. Viktor Bakayev can carry 118,000 tonnes of oil and, judging by the draft of 13.6 metres out of 14.6 metres, it is almost fully loaded.
The vessel has become the first large tanker to navigate the NSR this season. Viktor Bakayev has an Ice2 class. Icebreakers will accompany it on the most difficult sections. The tanker will encounter the first ice in the Kara Sea, but the most challenging situation may be in the East Siberian and Chukchi Seas, judging by the maps of the ice situation along the NSR.
Glavsevmorput, the company responsible for the NSR in Russia, issued a permit to Viktor Bakayev for crossings along the NSR from 29 July to 31 October.
While the transportation of Arctic oil through the NSR is traditional, last year raw materials from the Baltic ports also took the shortest route. At that time, the tankers Primorskiy Prospekt and NS Arctic were already sailing from Ust-Luga and Primorsk on the Northern Sea Route. In total, 14 shipments, totalling about 11 million barrels, were transported to China by the shortest route in 2023.
Navigation started late for Arctic oil this year. The NSR reduces the shipping time by a third, and it should take a month instead of a month and a half, which is spent on transportation around Europe and through the Suez Canal. However, in the first year of launching the delivery of Russian oil and LNG from the Baltic ports to Asia via the Arctic route, not everything went smoothly. Two of the six oil tankers sailing from the Baltic, NS Arctic and Primorskiy Prospekt, had to stop for six days in the East Siberian Sea and manoeuvre while awaiting an icebreaker due to the ice situation.
It is not known whether the delay in the navigation of Russian oil along the Northern Sea Route is related to this. For example, NS Arctic and Primorskiy Prospekt are currently in Murmansk but have not yet set off.
Among oil tankers, navigation on the NSR was initiated by Shturman Ovtsyn. With a small cargo capacity, the vessel (up to 41,000 tonnes of raw materials) is travelling from Murmansk to the Chinese port of Zhizhao, where it is due to arrive on 18 August. An Arctic shuttle tanker has approached Wrangel Island and, judging by the route, is forced to circumnavigate the ice fields.
There is also a tanker, Mikhail Ulyanov, coming from Murmansk, which can carry up to 70 tonnes of oil. The ship is heading to the Vostochny port near Nakhodka and is passing through the Vilkitsky Strait, entering the Laptev Sea.
China and India have become the main recipients of raw resources from Russia. Rosatom, together with Russian companies, is working on the issue of redirecting Russian oil from the Baltic ports to the NSR as the safest and most attractive route. Recently, the Arctic Century wrote about hubs for the accumulation of goods on the NSR, created by Rosmorrechflot with Rosatom.
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