Northern Sea Route Ice-Free, Wide-Open Even To Ships Without Any Ice Reinforcement

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The Arctic shortcut that connects Asia and Europe is open and ice-free and shipping appears smooth, also for vessels without ice class standards. The last pieces of frozen water vanished in mid-August and ice-data shows that the whole route now is free of ice. That includes the East Siberian Sea, the area that normally has the longest-lasting white sheet.

The period August-October is peak season for Arctic shipments. But the number of ships in the area still remains low. Figures from Russia’s Northern Sea Route Administration shows that a total of 94 vessels in the last week of August were sailing in the waters between the Bering Strait and the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya.

The vast majority of the ships are on the western part of the route, in areas where ice vanished already in July. Only about 30 vessels were located in waters east of the Kara Sea.

Of the vessels now sailing on the more than 5,500 km long sea route are about 20 tankers, several of them bringing oil from the terminal of Novy Port, others are LNG carriers serving the Yamal LNG.

EDIT

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2019/08/there-no-ice-left-russias-northern-sea-route