Russia is determined to get far more traffic transiting its chilly northern shores. It has been a long held, strategic goal of president Vladimir Putin to take the Northern Sea Route mainstream. Financial incentives may soon be on hand to make this a reality.
“Transportation of goods along the Northern Sea Route should not be more expensive, but in the long term cheaper than along the Suez Canal”, deputy prime minister Yury Trutnev told reporters earlier this week.
Trutnev has asked the Ministry for the Development of the Far East, the Ministry of Transport and Rosatom to conduct an economic analysis together to work out how to make the alternate Asia-Europe waterway more competitive with the Suez.
The massive Vostok Oil project will come online in 2024, likely seeing many more tankers transiting Arctic waters alongside growing volumes of LNG carriers.
Plans are now being made to get more rail lines to key ports such as Sabetta.
