For the first time a ship manages to navigate the Arctic route by transporting liquid natural gas from northern Siberia to China

  For the first time in the history of world navigation, a large-capacity ship carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived in a Chinese port on the Northern Sea Route, departing from the Arctic in May and ending its route in June, is say, two months earlier than usual. The North Sea Route is a shipping route officially defined by Russian law as being located east of Novaya Zemlya and extending specifically along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea, throughout Siberia, to the Bering Strait. The entire route is in the waters of the Arctic and within the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The waters are free of ice for only two months a year. The general route on the Russian side of the Arctic between the North Cape and the Bering Strait has been named the Northeast Passage, analogous to the Northwest Passage on the Canada side. Usually, the maritime traffic in the port of Sabetta in the Russian region of Yamal (which is the main natural gas producing area in Russia) begins in July. However, the large-capacity ship named Christophe de Margerie left in mid-May for the Chinese port of Jiangsu. Unexpectedly, it took the ship only three weeks to travel this route and reached its destination on June 10. According to the Russian media Rossiyskaya Gazeta, during the tour the ship's crew collected various data on the situation of the ice in the territory to include them in a logistical planning of future development projects for Arctic ships. 

It should be noted that the ship Christophe de Margerie has not sailed alone. In front of her, the Yamal nuclear icebreaker cleared her way because the ice conditions in this region are still quite difficult at this time of year. Still, the ship's early arrival is considered a major breakthrough for Russia in demonstrating its great potential for the transportation of large cargo in the Arctic seas. Hundreds of ships pass through this route each year, while the most common route called Suez passes around 18,000 per year due to the shorter sailing period. It was previously considered not feasible and time consuming to traverse the North Sea Route despite nuclear icebreakers making navigation possible. However, in the last 30 years the situation has changed and there has been a trend of decreasing sea ice. While the Northeast Passage includes all the seas of the Eastern Arctic and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the North Sea Route does not include the Barents Sea, and therefore does not reach the Atlantic. Continuing melting of the Arctic ice sheets is likely to increase traffic and commercial viability of the Northern Sea Route. In that case, according to a study on the subject, there could be "notable changes in trade flows between Asia and Europe, the diversion of trade within Europe, the intense maritime traffic in the Arctic and a substantial drop in traffic in Suez. The projected changes in trade also place substantial pressure on an already threatened Arctic Ecosystem. " To all this is added, the innovation represented by Russian nuclear icebreakers that have a great capacity to break floating ice of thickness up to 6 meters.