Russia’s gas giant company Gazprom, with its oil arm Gazprom Neft, announced that they had sent its first Arctic oil cargo to China via the Northern Sea Route (NSR). Russia is betting on the NSR route to deliver cargoes to both Asia and Europe, although the route requiring special ice-class tankers and icebreakers. Its top private gas producer, Novatek, is shipping supercooled gas via NSR route all year-round.
The company said on Monday, July 13, it will took 47 days to deliver the 144,000 tons of light Novy Port oil grade cargoes to the Yantai port in China on the Bohai Sea from Russia's Murmansk in the northwestern part of the country. The Novy Port oil is extracted by Gazprom Neft in the Yamal peninsula, Russian Arctic.
Gazprom Neft, Russian’s third biggest output oil company, was already using the NSR route for exports to Europe before the landmark delivery of Novy Port oil to China. Gazprom Neft has recorded over 40 million tons of Arctic oil shipment to European market since 2013 if combined with the second Arctic oil field of Prirazlomnoye in the Pechora Sea.
Lukoil, Russia’s second biggest oil producer, sold a cargo of Varandey Blend crude oil grade and sent it to a Chinese buyer in October 2019. Market talks has it that this cargo shipment sailing via Arctic waters in an unconventional trade flow.
