The Russian government has announced plans to massively expand the annual transit volume on the Northeast Passage. “By 2030, we plan to reach a level of 150 million tons, of which 30 million tons will be transit,” First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said, adding that a total of 716 billion rubles (8.21 billion euros) will be invested in infrastructure over the next 10 years. The aim is to make the route passable all year round. More than half of the total amount is to be spent before 2024.
Currently, the majority of Arctic cargo volumes are handled by LNG carriers. In the last week of July, five large tankers were on route from the Sabetta LNG terminal eastward through the Bering Strait to China.
According to the Northern Sea Route Administration a total of 64 ships were sailing on the Northern Sea Route on 22 July 2021.
Shipping on the Northeast Passage has increased sharply in recent years, reaching a total volume of 32.97 million tonnes in 2020, but only about 1.3 million tonnes of these were transit shipments. Läs artikel