As shipments grow in volume across the Arctic from Russia to Asia, led by LNG, there’s increased needs for a variety of marine services.
Yesterday, Sovocomflot, Novatek and Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Center, a subsidiary of Rosneft, entered into a trilateral agreement to cooperate on the development of a ship repair cluster in Russia’s Far East. The repair facility will be developed at the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in Primorsky region, a yard that has taken on a series of ever more high tech newbuild orders in recent years.
Across Russia’s northern coastline giant new infrastructure is coming into place as president Vladimir Putin is determined to make the Northern Sea Route a major maritime route, something that worries environmentalists.
In July, Dubai-based terminal operator DP World has announced it will work with Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom to develop pilot container shipping routes between Northwest Europe and East Asia through the Arctic.
“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 in June.
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.
