Recent Arctic Shipping in Bering Strait and the Russian Maritime Arctic

Speaker: Lawson Brigham
Visiting Researcher, University of Alaska Fairbanks
& Global Fellow, Wilson Center

The extraordinary retreat of Arctic sea ice provides for greater marine access and potentially longer seasons of navigation throughout the Arctic Ocean. In addition, a major driver of increasing Arctic marine traffic remains natural resource development, particularly in the Russian Arctic. This significant driver was highlighted in the scenarios work of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) released in 2009. The marine transportation system along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) links Russia’s oil, gas and hard minerals to global markets and recent cargo tonnage carried along the NSR has been increasing to historic highs. Highly visible is the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities on the Yamal Peninsula and in the Ob Gulf, and the use of icebreaking LNG carriers that can extend the navigation season. Some of this traffic increase along the NSR and through Bering Strait can be observed in the data collected by the Marine Exchange of Alaska. This talk will focus on recent marine operations and shipping in the U.S. maritime Arctic and along the length of the Russian marine Arctic.

Links and Resources shared during webinar:

• Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal: Estimates of Undiscovered Oil and Gas North of the Arctic Circle
• Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment
• Marine Exchange of Alaska
• Marine accessibility along Russia’s Northern Sea Route
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