Rosatomflot ensured ultra-late ice escort along Northern Sea Route, 1st-ever in Arctic navigation

Sabetta, February 26 - Neftegaz.RU. ROSATOM announced that for the 1^st time in the history of Arctic navigation in this period, a nuclear icebreaker escorted a ship from Cape Dezhnev along the whole Northern Sea Route (NSR).
The ships have covered 2,449 nautical miles.

The nuclear icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy on February 7 took the Yamalmax-class LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie under escort off Cape Dezhnev, and the ships started moving westwards.
Maximum ice pack thickness along the convoy route was up to 1.5 meters.

Mustafa Kashka, CEO of Atomflot, said:

• The successful escort of a Yamalmax-class LNG tanker shows the preparedness of the nuclear icebreaking fleet for considerable extension of the navigation season in the NSR
• The year-round polar navigation has always been a lifelong dream of the Arctic pioneers
• The company is renewing the fleet of nuclear icebreakers
• We established the Marine Operations Headquarters to provide navigators with complete ice and hydrometeorological data
• In Petersburg, we run the Arctic Maritime Competence Center for training and skill improvement of our sailors

Currently, ROSATOM, NOVATEK and Sovcomflot are considering ice escort of an LNG carrier eastwards in April or May this year.

One of the ROSATOM's priority goals is to ensure safe year-round navigation along the NSR to deliver hydrocarbon products to the Asia-Pacific markets.
In 2020, Atomflot performed an ultra-early experimental escort.