Beluga Shipping, Germany, has successfully sailed two multipurpose heavy lift carriers in what is understood to be the first commercial transit of the legendary Northeast Passage from Asia to Europe.
In August and September 2009, 'Beluga Fraternity' and 'Beluga Foresight' delivered various heavy lift modules from Ulsan, South Korea, straight to Novyy Port, Yamburg at the River Ob in Siberia, exited the so called Northern Sea Route by passing Nowaya Semlja and took on the hook up project by loading steel pipes in Archangelsk and delivering them to Nigeria. The connection utilized the shortcut through the Arctic Ocean.
Sailing the route – which is newly open for a short time frame in summer due to global warming and melting ice – shaves off some 3,000 nautical miles from the roughly 11,000 miles long traditional journey through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aden.
"By using the Northern Sea Route we could reduce the bunker consumption of low sulphur Intermediate Fuel Oil 380 by roughly 200 tonnes in total per vessel. This resulted in financial savings of about US$100,000 alone for bunker costs with Beluga F-class vessels plus US$20,000 daily for each day traveling the Northeast-Passage shortens the usual voyage time", said Niels Stolberg, President and CEO of Beluga Shipping, Germany.
All in all, about US$300,000 per vessel was saved by transiting the formerly ice-packed route along the North Russian shore through the Bering Sea, the Bering Strait, the Laptev Sea, the Vilkizki Strait and the Kara Sea instead of taking the long way round.
As a positive side effect, environmentally harmful emissions were significantly reduced: "We can use the Northeast-Passage only because of the effects of global warming, yet by doing so we reduce the bunker consumption and cut down emissions. With regard to the global CO2 balance this is a beneficial achievement", Niels Stolberg explains.
No other foreign merchant vessels had formerly sailed this sea route nor has any even been allowed to try by the Russian government.
In earlier times explorers fought their way through the thick ice. Since the late fifteenth century first attempts were made to find a short all-water route from Europe mainly to China yet it was not before 1878/79 that Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld accomplished the first full traverse. Later, since the early nineteenth century, the former USSR established a shipping lane through the Northern Sea Route to explore resources in the remote interior or to build up, supply and maintain strategic military posts. The Russian ice breaker fleet kept the passage navigable when required. This has been necessary for centuries and decades and sailing through the Northeast-Passage without ice breaker assistance has never been possible before.
In 2007 and 2008 reports suggested that regular shipping through this inhospitable area could become a reality as satellite pictures revealed that melting ice during summer opens the way.