When severe snowstorms prevented life-sustaining fuel supplies from reaching the frozen Alaskan town of Nome, U.S. officials turned to a Russian company for help.
The relief mission through perilous, ice-choked seas was the first mid-winter fuel delivery to western Alaska, capping a year of pioneering shipping as oil and gas development and climate change increase traffic along northern trade routes sought by centuries of Arctic explorers.
Russia has staked future growth on mining the Arctic’s vast energy resources, and reviving a Soviet-era shipping route along its Siberia coast is an integral part of that plan. It could also promise economic revival for Russia’s ports and shipyards, struggling since their Soviet-era glory days.
But industry analysts and mariners say ice floes, narrow straits, shallow waters, poor infrastructure and stormy winters continue to loom as obstacles to safe and profitable shipping through the polar shortcut.
“We must develop the Arctic!” said Fazil Aliyev, a sea captain and owner of the tanker that voyaged to Alaska.
“It is profitable for everyone. Our clients win because their cargo is delivered faster, now we need to make it economically viable… try to make it a year-round route,” he said, speaking by phone from Vladivostok, Russia’s gateway port to Asian
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