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40 Mn Tonnes and 341 Ship Calls: the North Sea Route in Numbers

FSUE Atomflot issues preliminary results of the winter and spring navigation season.

24 May 2022

Atomflot has published the results of the winter and spring navigation season on the North Sea Route. Thanks to Atomflot's icebreakers, a total of 341 ships had made it to Arctic ports and destinations by May 2022. The ships' gross tonnage exceeded 40 mn tonnes. Navigation on the eastern route was difficult, says the website of the Project Office for Arctic Development (POAD) citing the public relations department of FSUE Atomflot.

For the icebreaker fleet, the navigation season began in December 2021. ROSATOM had signed agreements on icebreaker escort services with the largest companies involved in mining in the Arctic. The main destinations included Gydan, Yamal and the north of the Yenisey. The ships' gross tonnage amounted to 40.6 mn tonnes. The icebreakers escorted 186 ships for the Yamal LNG, Arctic LNG 2 and MRTS projects. They also escorted 86 ships to Cape Kamenny, to the Arctic Gate oil loading terminal, under an agreement with Gazprom Neft. For the mining and metallurgical company Norilsk Nickel, the number of ship calls during the season amounted to 73.

Navigation in the direction of Chukotka was also difficult.

"The key element here is the work of the Arktika icebreaker on the eastern route. In early February, for the first time in the history of Arctic navigation, a nuclear icebreaker escorted a caravan of small ice-class ships from the port of Pevek to the western edge of the Kara Sea," noted Acting General Director of Atomflot Leonid Irlitsa.

As of the end of May, icebreakers 50 Let Pobedy, Sibir, Taymyr and Vaygach still remain in the waters of the North Sea Route. The fleet is starting to return to its home port of Murmansk. Atomflot is preparing for cruises to the North Pole.

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