Moscow pushes Arctic shipping towards disaster
Russian authorities are green-lighting ships without ice-class on the Northern Sea Route. This month, it could have ended in catastrophe.
The 275-meter-long oil tanker Lynx was on the way from Murmansk to China when it got stuck in the sea-ice. According to Russian sources, the ship had to wait several days at 72° North for assistance. The tanker, which was reportedly carrying about 150,000 tons of oil, does not have ice-class capability, which makes it highly exposed to accidents in the remote and icy waters. The Lynx ultimately got loose from the sea-ice and continued eastwards at low speed. By September 15 it had made it to the Bering Sea, information from MarineTraffic shows.
Reportedly, the Lynx is not the only carrier that has recently experienced problems in the area. Just a few days earlier, an LNG carrier also got stuck. The Arctic Metagaz had to wait for more than a week to get free from the sea-ice. The carrier was spotted in the Ura Bay on the Kola Peninsula in mid-July when it loaded LNG at the Saam FSU, a 400-metre-long sanctioned terminal vessel. By September 23, the Arctic Metagaz had made it south of Japan, ship traffic information shows.
Neither the Lynx, nor the Arctic Metagaz, have hulls made for shipping in ice. Both are on international sanctions lists and operate as part of Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet.’ In recent years, the ships have changed owners and flag states multiple times. Several more shadow fleet tankers without ice-class capability are heading towards the icy route. As the far northern waters are starting to freeze again, three carriers loaded with oil made their way this week to the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea. The Makalu and Aquatica are on the way from terminals near St.Petersburg to China, while the Danshui is sailing from Murmansk towards the Chinese port of Yingkou.
The shipments follow in the wake of the Mires, a 244-meter-long oil tanker that earlier this month sailed from China towards Murmansk. Russian authorities are taking growing risks and apparently trying to conceal the hazardous shipments. None of the tankers Lynx, Arctic Metagaz, Makalu, Aquatica or Danshui are listed in the online registries of the Northern Sea Route Administration. The Administration is run by the state nuclear power company Rosatom and regulates shipments on the route. The registry is to include all ships approved for sailing on the NSR.
Experts strongly warn against ships without ice-class capability in Russian Arctic waters. Ksenia Vakhrusheva, Arctic project advisor at the environmental organization Bellona, recently told the Barents Observer that Russian authorities are neglecting security. “The attitude of the authorities towards environmental risks is negligible. It is more likely that we will know about an oil spill from international journalists who monitor satellite images, than from Russian authorities,” she said. Professor in ice navigation Norvald Kjerstad likewise confirms that the risks are high.
“Unfortunately, there appears to be an increasing number of ships without ice-class capability sailing on the Northern Sea Route […] “Ships of this kind are very exposed to serious damage if they get in contact with ice – especially ice that contains parts of glacier ice or multi-year-old ice, which is the case along the whole NSR,” he emphasised.
