Arctic Seas News

A walrus was spotted in the northern French port of Dieppe in Normandy, miles away from its natural habitat around the arctic circle, local French authorities said on Saturday.The sea mammal, usually found in Greenland, Russia or Alaska, did not show any sign of ill health, the local prefecture said in a statement. Local authorities cordonned off the area on Friday evening to protect the tusked animal, which was resting onshore, according to a picture tweeted by the prefecture. It dived down on Saturday morning and disappeared.

High in the Arctic Circle lies the Northern Sea Route, one of the planet’s vital shipping arteries. It cuts a journey by almost a third compared to the southern route but it is passing through waters which are mostly frozen.The northern route connects east and west, allowing cargo to be transferred from northern Europe to northeast Asia, via the Bering Strait. It’s a 30% faster passage than the southern Europe-Asia alternative via the Suez Canal and is attractive to shipping companies, thanks to considerable fuel and emission savings.

Inmarsat will introduce two new satellite payloads dedicated to the Arctic region in a partnership with Space Norway, and its subsidiary Space Norway HEOSAT.The new Global Xpress (GX) payloads support the rapidly growing demand among both commercial and government users for seamless, reliable, high-speed mobile broadband services in the Arctic and throughout the world. They specifically address rising demand for high-speed mobile broadband Fleet Xpress service capability from the merchant shipping…

Though the tanker market has been a global maritime laggard in 2018, with overcapacity cited as the chief culprit, apparently it could not dissuade PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) from inking a deal wih Rosneft, Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex and VEB Group for a pair of Aframax tankers. VEB-Leasing will finance the construction, and Rosneft signed a 20-year time-charter for the pair.The 114,000 dwt ships will be LNG fueled and 1A/1B ice class, able to operate year-round in areas with difficult ice conditions, including sub-Arctic seas and Russian ports of the Baltic regio“We welcome the plans of the Russian shipbuilders, from Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex…

The new Vessel Electric Propulsion Training Center at the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University in Russia will help to prepare seafarers for work on vessels equipped with Azipod propulsion systemsThe center will be used to train MSUN cadets, as well as to provide advanced training to commissioned officers of the merchant fleet. It is also planned to conduct research, including scientific and experimental activities, in the area of automation of electric propulsion and vessel power supply.The establishment of the center follows the trilateral research…

Russian oil company Rosneft announced it has ordered two Aframax crude oil tankers to be built at Russia's far eastern Zvezda shipyard for scheduled delivery in 2022.The Russian-flagged vessels will have a deadweight of 114,000 metric tons and a 1A/1B ice class, which makes them able to operate in icy conditions year round, including in sub-Arctic seas and Russian ports of the Baltic region, said Russian shipping company PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group).According to the documents, Arctic Leasing will place orders for construction of the two Aframax tankers at the shipyard…

Finland is a traditional marine tech hub, with almost 90 company members in the Finnish Maritime Industries association. While the country has a storied maritime history across many sectors, based on geographic locale, it’s Arctic and ice marine technology is second to none, and it’s hoping the U.S. Coast Guard is taking notice.The Finnish maritime industry is hoping to get involved in developing the new icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard polar icebreaker program. Ulla Lainio…

SCF Group signed time-charter agreements with Shell for two dual-fueled Aframax tankers. At a ceremony held during International Petroleum Week in London, the time charter agreements were signed by Evgeny Ambrosov, Senior Executive Vice-President of SCF Group, and Mark Quartermain, Vice-President of Crude Trading for Shell. The vessels are part of a series of six SCF Group tankers currently under construction and due for delivery between Q3 2018 and Q1 2019. The two tankers will be on time charter to Shell for up to 10 years, with a minimum commitment of five years. This “Green Funnel” series of ice class 114,000 deadweight liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered Aframax tankers will operate within Shell’s extensive global freight trading network.

Climate change and the associated warming of the Arctic seas has opened up the Northern Sea Route as a possible alternative to more southerly trading routes between Europe and Asia Pacific, but it presents unique challenges to any ship using it. The information paper, which will be released today (7 December), highlights the challenges and best practices that ship managers and Masters should consider when planning and executing a transit of the Northern Sea Route, so that they can make an informed decision about the transit. Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) Director Andrew Cassels said, “The Northern Sea Route is a relatively new passage in an environmentally sensitive area for merchant ships trading between Europe and Asia Pacific.

The new $180 million polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough currently under construction at the Cammell Laird Birkenhead shipyard in the Port of Liverpool City Region, U.K. is slated to be equipped with FarSounder's longest range sonar system, the FarSounder-1000. The new, state-of-the-art ship, owned by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), will enable scientists to explore and undertake science in new areas of the Antarctic and Arctic seas. With the vessel’s ability to embark on longer voyages and explore some of the most remote aquatic regions of the world…

Built by Arctech Helsinki Shipyard, the Russian flagged Gennadiy Nevelskoy (deadweight 3,000 metric tons) will home port in Saint Petersburg and was commissioned by SCF under a long-term agreement with Sakhalin Energy. She is the first of four vessels for operations at the Sakhalin-2 project; the other three are ice-breaking standby vessels (IBSBVs) that have a smaller deadweight (2,000 metric tons), but offer enhanced functionality and a higher people-on-board capacity. The agreement between Sovcomflot and Sakhalin Energy…

The first Polar Ship Certificate was issued by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS). The document was released by Murmansk Branch on 22 December, 2016 in the port of Murmansk to the tanker Shturman Albanov, owned by SCF Group. In connection with the Polar Code entering into force, the compliance with the requirements thereof is a precondition for ships operated in the Barents Sea, Cara Sea water area south of 60 S and in other seas included in the polar water. The Polar Ship Certificate confirms the ship's compliance with the Code requirements related the safe navigation - for instance, the of the ship's hull to withstand severe temperature and ice conditions…

The vastness of the sea and its sometimes harsh conditions often pose a challenge to marine researchers. In the North Sea near Heligoland, scientists from the Thünen Institute for Sea Fishing, the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht (HZG) have now installed an extraordinary device: an optical-acoustic underwater observatory. It is capable of capturing and automatically identifying the smallest marine life underwater - around the clock and even under conditions where no research ship can leave the port. Microscopically small creatures, fish larvae, jellyfish as well as youth stages of many snails and echinoderms - all this is counted as zooplankton.

PAO Sovcomflot, Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. (ABB) Company and the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University (MSU) have signed an agreement for research, technological and educational partnership. The document provides for the establishment of the Marine Propulsion Simulation Centre at MSU in Vladivostok. The operations of this centre which will be focused on preparing staff for work on vessels equipped with Azipod propulsion units. The agreement was signed by Sergey Frank, President and CEO of Sovcomflot, Sergey Ogay, Rector of MSU, and Anatoly Popov, Managing Director of ABB in Russia. As part of this agreement, ABB will provide MSU with the equipment designed to simulate the operation of Azipod vessel electric power and propulsion units and provide further assistance with its installation…

British and Russian World War Two veterans gathered on Wednesday in Arkhangelsk, 75 years to the day since Britain's first Arctic convoy of military supplies steamed into the northern port. Britain's Princess Anne has been among those attending events honouring those who sailed, and the thousands who died, protecting supply convoys dispatched to aid the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. On Aug. 31, 1941, two months after Hitler's surprise attack on his erstwhile ally prompted Josef Stalin to seek support from a beleaguered Britain, the first convoy, codenamed "Dervish", sailed into Arkhangelsk, or Archangel, after a 10-day crossing.

The ocean has gotten noisier for decades, with man-made racket from oil drilling, shipping and construction linked to signs of stress in marine life that include beached whales and baby crabs with scrambled navigational signals. The United States aims to change that as a federal agency prepares a plan that could force reductions in noise-making activities, including oil exploration, dredging and shipping off the nation's coast. "We've been worried about ocean noise for decades, since the 1970s," said Richard Merrick, chief science adviser to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries agency and a key author of the agency's more detailed 10-year plan to be released publicly later this year.

Today the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg (part of United Shipbuilding Corporation) laid the keel of Ural, Project 22220’s second series-produced nuclear icebreaker. The icebreaker’s body is to be built entirely from shipbuilding steel supplied by OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works ("MMK"). In total, MMK will supply 15,000 tonnes of steel for Ural. MMK metal has also been used in the construction of the first Project 22220 icebreakers – the flagship Arktika and the first series-produced icebreaker Siberia. MMK accounts for over 50% of all metal supplies used in Russia’s shipbuilding industry. In 2015, MMK shipped 86,000 tonnes of metal to domestic ship builders, up nearly 11% year-on-year and up approximately 1.5x against 2013.

A new global challenge and a compliance monitoring market are emerging, due to tightening environmental regulations. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Tampere University of Technology and the University of Turku have joined forces in an international project – Shipping Emissions in the Arctic – with the aim of making the measurement of black carbon emissions from shipping more reliable. The initial results show that engine loads and fuel types have a major impact on black carbon emissions from ships.

Murmansk Governor Marina Kovtun, at the first meeting of the State Commission for the development of the Arctic has proposed a change to the system of energy pricing for the Murmansk region and zoning of marine areas. The authorities of the Murmansk region linked the successful development of Russian oil and gas projects in the Arctic with the timely development of the Murmansk transport hub and the construction of the railway on the western shore of the Kola Bay, Interfax reported. "The project is the integrated development of the Murmansk Transport Hub, which is implemented in our region, one hundred percent is the Arctic, because it allows in the future to extend the infrastructural capacity of the Murmansk port," - said the governor.

Aker Arctic and Vyborg Shipyard have confirmed a contract for the design of two new icebreakers based on Aker ARC 130 A design. The icebreakers will be used in the oil terminal operated by LLC Gazprom Neft Novy Port in the Gulf of Ob. The new icebreakers represent a further development of the Aker ARC 130 icebreaker concept originally developed for the Finnish Transport Agency. The new design, Aker ARC 130 A, will utilize similar propulsion concept consisting of three azimuth thrusters – two in the stern and one in the bow of the vessel.

NOAA announced the official launch of its 2015 Arctic hydrographic survey season took place this morning, in Kodiak, Alaska, in a World Ocean Day ceremony which showcased the deployment of the NOAA ships Rainier and Fairweather. “Most Arctic waters that are charted were surveyed with obsolete technology, with some of the information dating back to Captain Cook's voyages, long before the region was part of the United States,” said NOAA deputy under secretary for operations Vice Admiral Michael S. Devany in remarks directed to the crews of NOAA ships.

A steel-cutting ceremony was held on September 29 for the lead gas tanker ordered by SCF Group for transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) under the Yamal LNG project. The prototype vessel will be operated under a long-term time charter between OAO Sovcomflot and JSC Yamal LNG. The steel-cutting ceremony, marking the formal start of a ship’s construction process, took place at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (South Korea) shipyard in the presence of representatives from OAO Sovcomflot…

From October 7-10, 2014, Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) will participate in Offshore Marintec Russia, the International Conference and Exhibition, a new project for the Russian market. The event is focused on offshore development and is dedicated to the specialists of oil and gas industry. During the exhibition RS will present “Member’s Area”, a new information service which enables the RS customers, depending on the category, to access various RS information resources and databases. RS experts will actively participate in the Conference. Within the Conference Session ’Development of Modern Offshore Fleet for the Exploration of the Arctic and the Shelf of Russia‘ Georgiy Bedrik…