An international forum “The Arctic Region is an Area of Dialogue” gathered in Saint Petersburg on April 9-10, 2019 to discuss key issues of the social and economic development of the Arctic region. The forum has been held since 2010 and it is designed for joining the world’s efforts aimed at developing the Arctic region.

The business agenda of the forum involved FSUE “Rosmorport” General Director Andrey Lavrishchev, Deputy General Director for the Fleet Vasily Strugov, Director of the North-Western Basin Branch Sergey Pylin and Director of the Arkhangelsk Branch Kirill Gaida.

The participants in the forum discussed the modernization of the transport infrastructure and the aspects of social and economic development of the Arctic region, as well as prospects for the development of the Northern Sea Route.

Special attention was paid to projects for developing the infrastructure of the northern seaports. A special session was devoted to this issue. The participants considered promising projects of the comprehensive plan for expanding and modernizing the trunk infrastructure in the Arctic Basin till the year 2024. As of today 18 seaports are located in Russia’s Arctic region. They include the seaports of Sabetta, Dikson, Dudinka, Khatanga, Tiksi and Pevek. These seaports area located in the water area of the Northern Sea Route.

In his speech during the session “The Development of the Infrastructure of Northern Seaports” Andrey Lavrishchev said cargo turnover of Arctic seaports amounted to 92.7 million tons in 2018. This is almost 11.5% of total cargo turnover of Russian seaports. The FSUE “Rosmorport” General Director presented projects for the development of the port infrastructure with the participation of the enterprise. Under the federal project “The Russian Seaports” the unique project of the seaport of Sabetta was implemented in 2018. Yamal LNG, JSC jointly with FSUE “Rosmorport” has built facilities of the seaport since 2012. At the moment this is the major project in terms of the scope of works and financing in the Arctic region and it has no analogues in the world. As of today the seaport of Sabetta can transship at least 17.85 million tons of LNG and gas condensate. Based on the implementation of the project the seaport of Sabetta is capable of receiving gas carriers of the Christophe de Margerie sort of 300 meters in length, 50 meters in breadth and 11.78 meters in draft.

FSUE “Rosmorport” realizes several projects in Murmansk, which is also known as Russia’s Arctic gates. Among such projects are the reconstructions of hydraulic structures, the construction of a roadstead transshipping complex and the reconstruction of a 3^rd cargo area of the seaport of Murmansk. These operations will help increase the capacity of the port, the number of vessel calls and make access for vessels of 300 meters in length.

FSUE “Rosmorport” implements projects of the development of the infrastructure of the seaports of Pevek and Beringovsky in order to increase their capacity.

Among projects not related to the Arctic zone, but inalienably linked with the functioning of the Arctic ports Andrey Lavrishchev noted the project for creating an LNG terminal in the Bay of Bechevinskaya, Kamchatka Territory, including dredging operations and the construction of VTS. The project implemented jointly with NOVATEK PJSC will carry out the functions of a transshipment hub to storing and reloading LNG supplied from the seaport of Sabetta and exported to the countries of the Asia Pacific Region. Two start-up facilities are scheduled to be put into operation at the end of 2023.