Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/269434
22 S February 2014 www.cargobusinessnews.com By CBn Canadian Contributing editor Fred MCCAgue "It seems to be a case of 'If you build it, they will come' and if you don't, they will come anyway." miles upstream from the Kara Sea, serving the important Norilsk Nickel operations. Icebreakers keep the route from the port through the Kara Sea to the ice-free Barents Sea open year-round. Domestic traffic is heavy. In 2013, Russian authorities issued more than 700 permits to operate within the boundaries of the Northern Sea Route, for ships ranging from nuclear icebreakers to 100-foot coastal/river vessels. The Future The potential on both routes is huge. Increased traffic on the Northern Sea Route and further trials of the Northwest Passage are expected this summer. There were 16,500 voyages through the Suez Canal in 2013 and about 13,000 through Panama. A graph in the recently released U.S. Navy Arctic Road Map projects up to 450 vessels on the Northern Sea Route and 200 on the Northwest Passage per year between 2020 and 2025. Arctic developments will contribute to this traffic, although they can take decades to accomplish. Offshore developments in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, the Beaufort off Canada and both the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas off Russia have the potential for huge growth in tanker traffic in coming decades. In addition, there are extensive oil and gas fields onshore in Russia, including plans for shipments of 9.5 million tons per year of oil and condensate from the Yamal Peninsula by 2016, rising to 15 million tons per year over the next decade. In Canada in 1962, a major discovery of high-grade iron ore that can be crushed and shipped with no further processing was made on the Mary River near the northern tip of Baffin Island. A dock facility is being created on Milne Inlet on the east side of Baffin Island for what is termed the "early revenue phase." In 2015, 53 years after the discovery, the company will begin trucking 3.5 million tons of iron ore along a 60-mile tote road. The company plans a far larger operation, moving 18 million tons per year by a 75-mile dedicated railway to Steensby Inlet on Foxe Basin on the Hudson Bay side of the island, and will feature year-round shipping using large icebreaking bulk carriers. This could be in place as early as 2019 if market conditions improve. While the ore is currently expected to go to Europe, shipments to Asia via the Northwest Passage is a strong possibility. Another more general plan is the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project that will create a 130-mile, all- weather road linking up to seven active and planned mines in the region, with a port to be built near the southern end of 110-mile- long Bathurst Inlet. The inlet enters Coronation Gulf just west of Cambridge Bay. The port will handle fuel and supplies for the mines and ship out concentrates. Up to a dozen ships in the 50,000- ton range are expected to load each year. West to Bering Strait is the easiest route for these ships. The Canadian government has announced plans for an 85-mile road between Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort and Inuvik, the current end of the Dempster Highway to the Yukon, and is being pressed to develop shallow Tuktoyaktuk harbor into a deep draft port. New developments, such as azipod propellers used on the Coast Guard's light icebreaker Mackinaw for the Great Lakes, offer extended shipping seasons for private companies. The same as pods used on cruise ships, they have proved very effective on newer, privately owned Baltic icebreakers and on ice-strengthened bulk carriers and tankers designed for independent service in ice. There are now more than 25 in service. The tankers and bulk carriers turn around and break ice up to three feet thick sailing backwards. Palnikov noted Russia has plans for a new series of nuclear icebreakers to replace the existing fleet, with the first due about 2017. A string of Maritime Search and Rescue Centers is also under development. However, in both the United States and Canada, support for the Arctic is limited. Built in 1976, the USCGC Polar Star, with diesel and gas turbines combining for 75,000 hp, is second only to the four largest nuclear powered icebreakers of the Russian fleet for power. The ship was laid up in 2006, then, following a four- year refit, returned to service in 2013 for another decade of service. Plans for a replacement seem stalled. Canada has long had plans to build a polar-class icebreaker that could operate year-round in the Arctic and Hudson Bay. The government initially planned to begin cutting steel by 2017, however, this was recently pushed back to 2022. There could be well be further delays. Meanwhile, the country's existing fleet of two heavy icebreakers (similar in power to the Healy) and four medium icebreakers are all aging, with the newest built in 1987. A Corps of Engineers/State of Alaska Deep-Draft Port study is continuing its work and is reviewing Nome and Port Clarence/Teller for further study, with a final recommendation due soon. Projects north of Bering Strait did not make the short list. A Canadian project to develop Nanisivik on Baffin Island at the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage as a naval and commercial support center seems to be stalled. It seems to be a case of "If you build it, they will come" and if you don't, they will come anyway.