北极航道的未来

Future of traffic on the Northern Sea Route

相比北极国家国内的航运量，北极航道的运输量还只是很小一部分。业界各方还需从提高货运量和航行安全技术着力，进一步推进北极航道的商业化运营。

With the record low Arctic ice coverage in 2007, navigation via the formerly impenetrable Northern Sea Route(NSR) became a viable option and an apparent maritime fast lane. Ice coverage data indicates that 2007 – as the then new minimum – is not a statistical outlier, with six of the last 10 years more than two standard deviations below the long-term average and 2012 significantly lower still. The NSR opened to foreign flagged cargo ships in 2009 with two German vessels transporting heavy equipment from the Far East to Novy Port, located at the mouth of the Ob River on the Yamal Peninsula in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets Autonomus Region. In the following years, there was a flurry of activity that encompassed a range of cargo types, including coal, ore, hydrocarbons and frozen fish. During this time, two modes of transit – single cargo/ballast voyage and roundtrip voyage – were trialed to maximize efficiency. Newcomers to the NSR need to have a firm understanding of the challenges and requirements. Help is available in the ABS advisory, 'Navigating the Northern Sea Route,' which was published in January 2014. The advisory provides information to support ship owners and operators that want to transit the region safely and efficiently and includes information on applying for permits as well as guidance for identifying technical and operational risks. Additional guidelines and standards are needed, and ABS will continue in its role of helping to develop tools for safer Arctic operations.