Monday, 30 August 2010 08:45
The Arctic Sea route is twice faster than the old Suez Canal, whose significance in the global economy will from now on become less. To dispel the people's doubts about the viability of the new route, the Russian super tanker - the "Baltika" carrying one hundred thousand tons of gas condensate has left Murmansk for China by the Northern Sea route.
It is accompanied by several icebreakers, and the aim of the journey is to open a transport link with Asian countries. The huge economic gains in this are obvious, said Yury Sherbanin of the Institute of Agricultural forecasting.
The "Baltika" tanker is the first ship of its class to use the Northern sea route to carry gas condensate to China. There is a lot of economic sense in this. A tanker of the size of "Baltika" uses about 500 tons of diesel per day.
The North sea route is six thousand 600 miles, while the Suez Canal one is eleven thousand miles. Experts have calculated that the tanker will cover the distance from Murmansk to Shanghai in 22 days, while the same tanker will travel the same distance via the Suez Canal in 42 days - a saving of a million dollars in fuel only.
There is a risk of an attack by pirates along the Southern route, but there are solid ice chunks on the Arctic sea route.
However, there is always the fleet of powerful icebreakers to accompany the tanker, points out Sherbanin. The demand for energy by China, Japan and South Korea continues to increase. Gas from Sakhalin is already being shipped to Asia and Pacific nations by sea; gas will shortly begin to be extracted on the Island of Yamal, from where it wil be shipped to the East via the Arctic Sea route.
The Euro-Asian conference has decided that the Northern Sea Route should become the main transport corridor of the region.
According to plan, "Baltika" should bid farewell to the accompanying icebreakers in Pevek in the Chukotsky Sea and continue the journey to China on the open sea alone.