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 reportedly carried about 150,000 tons of oil, does not have ice-class, 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. On September 15 it had made it to the Bering Sea, information from MarineTraffic shows.
Reportedly, the Lynx is not the only carrier that recently has experienced problems in the area. Just few days earlier, a 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 made 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.' Over the past years, the ships have changed owners and flag states multiple times.
Several more shadow fleet tankers without ice-class are heading towards the icy route. As the far northern waters again start to freeze, three carriers loaded with oil this week made their way 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 try 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 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 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.
Also Professor in ice navigation Norvald Kjerstad confirms that the risks are high.
“Unfortunately, there appears to be an increasing number of ships without ice-class 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.
