Northern Sea Route traffic perks up - in LNG
According to news from the "Independent Barents Observer", the volume of goods shipped along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is expected to reach 29 million t in the course of 2019, says Nikolay Monko, the head of Russia’s Northern Sea Route administration.
According to Monko, shipments on the Arctic route in the first nine months of the year amounted to 23.37 million t. By the end of the year, volumes are likely to reach 29 million t. The shipping volumes show an increase of more than 40% from last year. In 2018, a total of 20.18 million t of goods were transported on the route.
The lion’s share of NSR ship traffic is related to the liquefied natural gas produced by Novatek. The company’s Yamal LNG is expected to produce more than 16 million t in 2019. Despite the major increase in Arctic shipping, transit shipments between east and west on the Northern Sea Route remain low. In the first nine months of 2019, a total of 442,000 t were shipped on the route. (fd)