The Northern Sea Route competitiveness for oil tankers

• Published in: Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
• Main Authors: Faury, Olivier, Cariou, Pierre
• Other Authors: Métis Lab EM Normandie, École de Management de Normandie (EM Normandie), Kedge Business School (Kedge BS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Bulk shipping; Arctic attractiveness; Northern Sea Route; Decision model; [SHS.GESTION]Humanities and Social Sciences/Business administration; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hal-normandie-univ.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02072732; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.09.026

International audience This article proposes a decision model for a ship-owner who contemplates the benefits of sailing north via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) or south via the Suez Canal Route (SCR) when transporting oil products from Russia to Asia. The decision is based on potential cost and transit time savings that change on a monthly basis according to sailing conditions and the area along the NSR. This study is applied to a 1A Ice-Class Panamax tanker vessel sailing through the NSR compared to a Panamax tanker vessel sailing through the SCR. It concludes that the NSR provides a competitive advantage in the months from August to November when conservative assumptions on ice conditions (higher bound) are considered for the level of ice thickness encountered along the route and from July to November when a lower bound is assumed.