After a successful icebreaking LNG carriers with a cargo of NOVATEK in may—June on the Northern sea route will be taken by new experimental flights. Rosatom, Sovcomflot and NOVATEK are planning new voyage in January-February 2021, when and ice, and light environment will be more difficult. The development of the Eastern route will allow to reduce time of transportation of cargo in the Asia-Pacific region (APR), and the extension of navigation up to nine to ten months is to double transportation of LNG by Northern sea route to the East.Experimental flights on the extension of navigation on the Northern sea route to the East will continue in 2021, announced at the meeting of the public Council of the Northern sea route, the head of the Board of Directors of “Sovcomflot” Sergey Frank. According to him, Sovcomflot, Rosatom and NOVATEK discuss the preparation of a late February flight. Information, speaking at the Council, confirmed by the captain of the atomic icebreaker “50 years of Victory” Dmitry Lobusov. “We plan in 2021 to further extend the period of navigation, flights in Jan-Feb will be too experimental, he said,— it will be already night, another light, other ice”.At the end of may—beginning of June, two LNG carrier with a cargo of NOVATEK together with the nuclear icebreakers made up the earliest in the history of the transaction in the Eastern sector of the Northern sea route (see “Kommersant” on 29 may). The first way of Sabetta in China began on may 18 tanker ice “Christophe de Margerie”, he was accompanied by nuclear icebreaker “Yamal”. After him may 24 from the port came the tanker “Vladimir Voronin” (belongs canadian Teekay and China LNG Shipment), accompanied by nuclear icebreaker “50 let Pobedy”. Before this court, class Yamalmax went in this direction only from July to early January. “Today we can guarantee that we can extend the navigation to the East up to nine to ten months and to provide our partners with access to markets in the Asia Pacific region”,— said the head of FSUE “Atomflot” Mustafa Kashka. Active use of the Northern sea route in an easterly direction can significantly reduce the delivery time of goods in the regions of Asia Pacific. As wrote “Kommersant”, the increase in terms of navigation via the Eastern route will only allow this year to increase transportation of LNG through the Eastern part of the Northern sea route by half to 2.4 million tonnes.In addition, the objective was to evaluate the quality, adequacy and efficiency of the ice forecasts, to determine the fatigue limit and optimum crew personnel, and test online monitoring systems and mechanisms of the vessel to identify faults and eliminate them. An example of a flight was shown, concluded Mr. gruel that the ship could pass anywhere behind the icebreaker and not get stuck.Just transition “Christophe de Margerie” on the Northern sea route took 12.5 days, of which 11.2 per day under icebreaking, was covered 2.5 thousand nautical miles (2,1 thousand with icebreaker), the average rate was 8.5 per node (7.9 site in the caravan), said Evgeny Ambrosov. Collected in the course of the flight data indicate the need to restore an effective system of ice reconnaissance, primarily using satellites, he added. At the same time Mr. Ambrosov stressed that the engine output more than 40 MW were used only 12% of the time when driving LNG. At the end of the flight, Sovcomflot has prepared a number of proposals, in particular to establish a unified icebreaking transportation system in the waters of the Northern sea route, to give the marine operations headquarters of Rosatom functions of the national service ice reconnaissance and monitoring, to create a modern space Arctic satellite constellation and to provide sustainable uninterrupted satellite communications for NSR.Dmitry Lobusov also agreed that during both flights, the ice situation was “fairly comfortable, at this time the weather cooperated.” The rate of movement of the second caravan was above, therefore, the journey time is less. From the presentation of the captain, “Vladimir Voronin” made a path for 9.4 days with an average speed of 11.3 per node, with distance travelled was little more than “Christophe de Margerie”. A significant part of the path “Vladimir Voronin” was independently under remote wiring, with provision of information about ice conditions from the headquarters of Maritime operations “Atomflot”, he added. The second go is easier said the captain, as is already well-known difficulties and hard spots encountered by the first caravan. In addition, changed weather, and “the wind helped,” added Mr. Lobusov. On the way “Christophe de Margerie” was a few difficult sections in the Vilkitsky Strait and exit the Chukchi sea, in both cases there was a strong storagenode, harsh conditions, the atomic icebreaker “Yamal” was a shock to pave the channel. Due to ice conditions the first caravan could not pass through Proliv Longa, and when was the second caravan, there was already formed ice.The problem of navigation in the East Siberian sea that the route little-studied, underlined Dmitry Lobusov, most of the time it is covered with ice array to produce enough detailed measurements of depths was impossible. Now, in the summer, the area is open, it becomes available to more and more new information about the seabed which helps to choose the route, said Mr. Lobusov.Anastasia Vedeniapina steps to the North sea to potiticat next
