German ships successfully make "Arctic Passage"

Reuters 12 Sep 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Two German cargo ships have successfully navigated across Russia's Arctic-facing northern shore from South Korea to Siberia without the help of icebreakers, the shipping company said.

The two merchant ships belonging to Beluga Shipping Gmbh were able to make the cost-saving voyage by the fabled Northeast Passage because of the reduction in the polar ice cap due to global warming, the company said.

"We are all very proud and delighted to be the first Western shipping company which has successfully transited the legendary Northeast Passage and delivered the sensitive cargo safely through this extraordinarily demanding sea area," Niels Stolberg, president and CEO of Beluga, said in a statement on the company's website.

The ships are carrying a cargo of "heavy plant modules," said the company statement, dated Sept 9.

The "Beluga Fraternity" and "Beluga Foresight" left the Russian port of Vladivostok with cargo picked up in July in South Korea, bound for Holland.

They dropped anchor at the Siberian port of Yamburg on Monday, Beluga said.

The Northern Sea Route trims 4,000 nautical miles off the usual 11,000-mile journey via the Suez Canal, which Beluga has said would yield substantial savings in fuel costs and reductions in CO2 emissions.

The company got Russian authorities' clearance to send the first non-Russian commercial vessels through the route in August.

"Russian submarines and icebreakers have used the Northern Route in the past but it wasn't open for regular commercial shipping before now because there are many areas with thick ice," Stolberg told Reuters in an email interview at that time.

"It was only last summer that satellite pictures revealed that the ice is melting and a small corridor opened which could enable commercial shipping through the Northeast Passage -- if all the circumstances were right and the requirements were met."

Stolberg said Beluga was eager to send ships through the northern route last summer during a six- to eight-week "window" in August and September when temperatures in the region rise to 20 degrees Celsius or more to open a corridor in the ice.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

German ships blaze Arctic trail
BBC News 11 Sep 09;

Two German merchant ships are sailing from Asia to Europe via Russia's Arctic coast, having negotiated the once impassable North East Passage.

This route is usually frozen but rising temperatures in the region caused by global warming have melted much of the ice allowing large ships to go through.

The North East passage has tempted mariners for hundreds of years.

In 1553 the British voyager Sir Hugh Willoughby died attempting to find the route.

The German ships Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight arrived in the Siberian port of Yamburg, in the Ob river delta, on Monday, owner Beluga Shipping GmbH said on its website.

Both ships left South Korea in late July, negotiating the passage off north-eastern Siberia behind two Russian icebreakers.

"We are all very proud and delighted to be the first Western shipping company which has successfully transited the legendary North East Passage and delivered the sensitive cargo safely through this extraordinarily demanding sea area", said Beluga CEO Niels Stolberg.

Retreating ice

The ships have been offloading some of their cargo. Beluga spokeswoman Verena Beckhusen told AP that the Beluga Fraternity had already left to continue its journey via Murmansk to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

The Foresight's departure has been postponed until Saturday because of bad weather, she added.

But the once impenetrable ice that prevented ships travelling along the northern Russian coast has been retreating rapidly because of global warming in recent decades.

The passage became passable without ice breakers in 2005.

By avoiding the Suez canal, the trip from Asia to Europe is shortened by almost 5,000km (3,100 miles).

The company behind the enterprise says it is saving about $300,000 per vessel by using the northern route.

Both the Russian authorities and the German shippers are keen to prove the safety and efficiency of the passage, believing it could be a valuable commercial alternative to the Suez canal in summer.

Despite the rise in temperatures the route is still dangerous, with icebergs moving more freely in the warmer waters.

Scientists estimate that the last time that the North East Passage was as ice free as it is now was between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago.