Russian and Chinese firms form hydrocarbon shipping joint venture

Russia’s Novatek and Sovcomflot have entered into an agreement with China’s COSCO Shipping Corporation and Silk Road Fund wherein the parties will jointly develop, finance, and implement year-round logistics arrangements for shipping hydrocarbons from Russia’s Arctic zone to the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The joint venture seeks to turn the Northern Sea Route along the Russian Arctic coast into a transportation corridor between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The establishment of the joint venture is in line with Russia’s goal of an increase of 80 million tonnes in annual cargo traffic in the Northern Sea Route by 2024, Novatek chairman Leonid Mikhelson confirmed.