December 14 2023
Over the past year and a half, there has been a transformation of the main markets that form the cargo base of Arctic shipping traffic
The volume of Russian export cargo delivered along the Northern Sea Route to the world market in 2023 amounted to 2.1 million tons. Mikhail Grigoriev, director of the “Gekon” consulting company, announced this at the 11th international forum “Arctic Projects Today and Tomorrow”.
He explained that from a legal point of view, the transit of goods along the NSR should now be called not transit, but export deliveries of Russian goods.
“In 2023, the volume of cargo transit along the Northern Sea Route amounted to 2.1 million tons; in fact it was equal to the figure for 2021. However, if in 2021 this volume was international transit, then in 2023 we do not have international transit on the NSR. There are export deliveries of Russian cargo to the world markets, which were produced from the ports of the Baltic and Murmansk. Some of the transportation was carried out by cabotage,” explained Mikhail Grigoriev.
Speaking about the cargo base of export supplies, he clarified that over the past year and a half there has been a transformation in our main markets, which form the cargo base for the Arctic shipping traffic. In addition to the NSR, it is advisable to include two terminals in the Pechora Sea – Varandey and Prirazlomnaya, as well as the Beringovsky port, which is growing quite successfully with seasonal coal shipments.
“The European and American markets are closed for Russian coal and tanker oil. There is also a fairly complicated situation with the supply of LNG to European ports, since the EU issued a few days ago a directive stating that EU countries can unilaterally decide whether to provide onshore infrastructure for handling ships with Arctic LNG. Problems arise, not very big, but obvious, for “Norilsk Nickel” with the North American and European markets, so the company focuses on transshipment in Tangier. In this regard, the only expected supply market is Asian. It can be reached by sea through two “doors”. The first is along the NSR to the East, the second is along the southern route through the Suez Canal,” said Mikhail Grigoriev.
He also noted that recently two more organizations implementing Arctic projects have faced sanction pressure, which will lead to changes in their export markets. “At first it was “North Star”, which is implementing the Syradasay coal deposit project in western Taimyr Peninsula and less than a month ago “Arctic LNG-2” project was included in the SDN list by the US Treasury Department, which leads to the blocking of their work with traditional partners.”
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