#Arctic

maritime-executive.com

www.bairdmaritime.com

Arctic shortcut to Europe opens as Chinese container ships get Russia green light

Russia's state nuclear giant Rosatom, operator of the Northern Sea Route via the Arctic, said on Friday it had issued permits for seven Chinese transit vessels

bellona.org

China keeps Arctic LNG 2 alive while Rosneft bets big on Vostok Oil

Despite sweeping Western sanctions, Russia’s ambitions in the Arctic continue to advance—albeit in increasingly different ways. Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project appears to have found a workable, if limited, export model centered almost entirely on China, while Rosneft is pressing ahead with its massive Vostok Oil development despite mounting questions over whether its ambitious production targets can ever be realized. These two stories dominate Bellona’s June Arctic Digest, highlighting both the resilience—and the growing constraints—of Russia’s Arctic energy strategy. Arctic LNG 2 finds a lifeline in China After months of uncertainty, Arctic LNG 2 has begun to establish something resembling a stable export system. During June, five LNG cargoes left the sanctioned plant. Most were transferred to the floating storage facility Saam FSU near Murmansk, while another was shipped east along the Northern Sea Route aboard the icebreaking LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie to the Koryak FSU off Kamchatka. Another tanker, the recently reflagged Arctic Express, also joined the growing fleet moving cargo from the project. Bellona notes that shipping activity along the Northern Sea Route now differs markedly from last year. Rather than sporadic shipments, Arctic LNG 2 is conducting regular deliveries to China, which has effectively become the...