Northeast Passage without icebreaker
Russia are loosening their grip around the Northeast Passage. In the future it will be possible to sail through the passage without being accompanied by Russian nuclear icebreakers, and when circumstances permits it, it will bee possible for ships that are not built for sailing in ice to sail through as well.
"It is an attempt to make the route attractive and bring it into international shipping standards", says Sergei Balmasov from Centre for High North Logistics to Berlingske Business.
In November the first tanker of liquefied natural gas from Norway to Japan was transported by sea using the passage. And with the expected boom in mining and quarrying in the Arctic, the Northeast Passage will be a highway for shipping.
"To get the minerals and fossil fuels from offshore drilling in the Arctic may be the biggest operation of shipping in the Arctic in the future", says Jan Fritz Hansen, Deputy Director from Danish Shipowners' Association.
Denmark's Arctic Ambassador Klavs Holm warns that emergency preparedness in the Arctic is not yet ready for the great bustle.
"There are many things that are lagging. We are working hard on that. The requirements apply to both ship and crew, rules for convoy sailing, ice-strengthening and special training of crew", says Klaus Holm to Berlingske.
Source: Berlingske Business
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