According to preliminary estimates, in 2023, the volume of cargo transportation of petroleum products to China through the Arctic reached a record level of 1.5 million tons.
Tankers were regularly dispatched from Murmansk, the Arctic Gate terminal and the ports in the Baltic Sea. The average time for oil delivery to Chinese ports from Primorsk and Murmansk along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) was 40 and 27 days, respectively.
Experts note the advantages of transportation along the NSR, such as simplified conditions for crossing the borders of other countries, lower fuel consumption and zero risk of piracy.
Despite the high figures of cargo transportation for this year, shippers failed to fulfill the annual oil transportation plan for the NSR, which in 2023 is set at 2.5 million tons.
To achieve these goals, an urgent launch of year-round navigation and an increase in the pace of transportation along the NSR is required, ttelegraf.ru notes.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
