Northeast Passage cargo traffic to rise to 29–30 mln tns in 2019

ST. PETERSBURG, Apr 10 (PRIME) -- The cargo traffic through Russia’s Northeast Passage will rise to 29–30 million tonnes in 2019 from 20 million tonnes in 2018, Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov told PRIME on Wednesday on the sidelines of the International Arctic Forum.

The Northeast Passage is Russia’s major Arctic shipping route and the shortest sea route between the Far East and the European part of the country.

“Our estimate is that we will reach the figure of about 29–30 million tonnes. This is a growth of more than one third as compared with our current achievement of 20 million tonnes,” he said.

Combined investment in transport infrastructure of the Northeast Passage may exceed 1 trillion rubles until 2024.

“So far, our plans are more moderate, and we expect about 730 billion rubles, of which 400 billion rubles are government funds from different levels of budget as we also have financing from Russian regions. But we expect that it will have reached 1 trillion rubles by 2024,” he said, adding that the infrastructure is expensive and it should return the investment.

He also said that investment into construction of the Utrenny liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal will exceed 150 billion rubles, of which 112.1 billion rubles will come from the budget.

“The project will cost more than 150 billion rubles, of which budget money account for 112.1 billion rubles, while the investor plans to invest about 40 billion rubles more. It is obviously a big project, but it is vital as it covers the demand of the Arctic LNG-2 project and is a cost-efficient investment. There will be a pool of private investors, we will work with them,” he said.

In March, President Vladimir Putin ordered that budget funds be allocated for construction of the terminal. RBC business daily reported that the Finance Ministry suggested redistribution of 112 billion rubles from the Moscow–Kazan high-speed railway to the terminal.

The Arctic LNG-2 plant will be launched in 2022–2025 and the fields of the Gydan Peninsula in the north of West Siberia will become its resource base. The facility is to produce 19.8 million tonnes of LNG per year.

(64.7766 rubles – U.S. $1)

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