Researchers and economists usually compare the Northern Sea Route with the conventional Suez Canal Route. In 2018 the Russian government transferred the main responsibility for the Northern Sea Route to Rosatom which through its ROSATOMFLOT subsidiary manages the Russian nuclear powered icebreaker fleet based in Murmansk. A 2016 report by the Copenhagen Business School found that large-scale trans-Arctic shipping may become economically viable by 2040. The Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis projected in 2015 that the Northern Sea Route may be ice-free by 2030, earlier than the Northwest Passage or Transpolar Sea Route. Escort assistance was required for three days from the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy. In 2018 Maersk Line sent the new "ice-class" container ship Venta Maersk through the route to gather data on operational feasibility, though they did not currently see it as commercially attractive. According to the New York Times, this forebodes more shipping through the Arctic, as the sea ice melts and makes shipping easier. In August 2017, the first ship traversed the Northern Sea Route without the use of icebreakers. Its current incarnation was the Federal State Budgetary Institution's establishment of The Northern Sea Route Administration in 2013. The administrative entity was sequentially updated, upgraded, and renamed. Since the mid-1930s the Northern Sea Route has been an officially managed and administered shipping route along the northern/Arctic coast of Russia. The Northern Sea Route is one of several Arctic shipping routes. The route was first conquered by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld's Vega expedition with a single wintering in 1878-79. Projected shifts in trade also imply substantial pressure on an already threatened Arctic ecosystem." įurther information: Northeast Passage § History One study, for instance, projects "remarkable shifts in trade flows between Asia and Europe, diversion of trade within Europe, heavy shipping traffic in the Arctic and a substantial drop in Suez traffic. Melting Arctic ice caps are likely to increase traffic in and the commercial viability of the Northern Sea Route. While the Northeast Passage includes all the East Arctic seas and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Northern Sea Route does not include the Barents Sea, and it therefore does not reach the Atlantic. The overall route on Russia's side of the Arctic between North Cape and the Bering Strait has been called the Northeast Passage, analogous to the Northwest Passage on the Canada side.
Parts are free of ice for only two months per year. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and within Russia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Northern Sea Route ( Russian: Се́верный морско́й путь, Severnyy morskoy put, shortened to Севморпуть, Sevmorput) is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Novaya Zemlya and specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait. Map of the Arctic region showing the Northern Sea Route, in the context of the Northeast Passage, and Northwest Passage