October 20, 2014

Christophe de Margerie, the CEO of French oil giant Total, who opposed his own country's and the West's sanctions against Russia and stood by Putin, arrived at Moscow's Vnukovo airport after a meeting with Putin. Preparing to return to Paris, he boarded his private jet. As the plane accelerated on the runway for takeoff, a snowplow unexpectedly appeared in its path. The vehicle's four-meter-long snow-clearing blade struck the aircraft, causing it to crash back onto the runway just as its wheels had lifted off. The Total CEO, along with the pilots and flight attendants, lost their lives in the accident. In a peculiar twist of fate, the only Western figure to openly support Putin met his end in what seemed to be a bizarre accident where he likely felt most secure.

January 5, 2021

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, owned by Russian shipping company Sovcomflot and chartered for Novatek's Yamal LNG project, embarked on a groundbreaking journey. Carrying 172,600 cubic meters of LNG, the vessel followed the Northern Sea Route (NSR) during the harsh winter, departing from Russia's Sabetta port and heading to Jiangsu port in China. The voyage was accompanied by an icebreaker ship. The entire journey of the ship, named after Russian President Putin, is being closely monitored by him. This route is only open to ships for safe navigation from July to the end of October during the summer months, and this is the first time a vessel is navigating this route in the middle of winter.

The vessel arrived at its discharge port on January 25, unloaded its cargo, and departed empty for Sabetta port on January 27. Despite the ship's icebreaking capabilities, the return voyage was expected to be significantly more challenging than the laden journey.

On February 7, the vessel entered the Arctic ice region, which was met by the nuclear icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy on the same day. Escorted by the icebreaker, the ship safely completed its historic journey, arriving at Sabetta port on February 17. Before this voyage, no commercial vessel navigated the Northern Sea Route in February. The journey occured entirely in darkness and at temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius. This operation, conducted in collaboration between Russian natural gas producer Novatek and nuclear energy company Rosatom, marked the first step toward keeping the Northern Sea Route (NSR) open year-round.

This LNG fleet, consisting of 15 ice-class vessels, can independently navigate through ice up to 2.1 meters thick. This voyage was the first voyage of the 15-ship fleet for this season. At Sabetta port, Russian President Vladimir Putin personally welcomed the vessel. Gathering the entire crew on the bridge, he shook hands with each member and delivered the following remarks: "This voyage is a significant milestone in opening the Arctic for year-round navigation."

The warming temperatures caused by global climate change and the decreasing ice thickness in the Arctic are topics worthy of separate discussion. However, the Northern Sea Route, largely under Russia's control, has completely shifted the region's geopolitical balance in favor of Russia. Beyond the time savings achieved along this route, Russia's primary gain is its year-round dominance in the Arctic.

In his article published on Veryansın TV on November 3, Retired Admiral Cem Gürdeniz wrote:

"In 2019, regular transportation routes had not yet been established, and the NSR was not open to global trade. Today, the situation is very different. With the establishment of regular routes in the Arctic front and the consistent passage of container ships capable of military build-up, a permanent crisis has emerged for the Anglo-Saxon front. However, Russia holds the advantage in this crisis. Only 12% of the Arctic Ocean's initial section is classified as international waters. Of the remaining 88%, 65% (24,000 km of coastline) falls under Russia's full sovereignty. Due to its continuous access to oceans, particularly with its nuclear submarines, 67% of the Russian Navy belongs to the Northern Fleet, whose main base is also in this region. The greatest nightmare for the U.S., however, is Russia's possession of 11 large-tonnage icebreakers and tugs, 8 of which are nuclear-powered. This superiority gives Russia a clear advantage over the U.S., which has only two icebreaker ships. At the start of 2024, Russian President Putin declared at an economic forum: ‘‘The center of Russia's economic development is shifting. Russia will expand with the Arctic.’’ Indeed, the region holds 30% of the world's natural gas reserves and 13% of its oil reserves.

Indeed, this year, the Flying Fish 1, a 5,000 TEU container ship, successfully traveled non-stop at an average speed of 16 knots from Russia's Saint Petersburg port to China's Shanghai port in just 20 days without requiring the assistance of an icebreaker. As mentioned earlier, the significance lies not only in the time saved but also in the establishment of a new route, which will fundamentally alter the geopolitical balance in the Arctic.

While all these developments continue to favor Russia, the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 82), in its early October meeting, announced plans to introduce new regulations aimed at reducing black carbon emissions from ships operating in the Arctic region. These regulations are expected to be discussed in more detail during the technical committee meeting scheduled for January.

Black carbon is a short-lived pollutant produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, which has more than 3000 times the impact of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. While it contributes to global warming when it is in the atmosphere, when it falls on snow and ice, it accelerates their melting. This melting exposes darker areas of land and seawater, absorb more sun heat, significantly reducing the albedo (reflectivity) capacity of the planet's polar ice caps. The increased heat in polar systems leads to more melting, exacerbating the effect. This is the loss of the albedo effect and is a significant concern. Scientists have recently announced that the reflectivity of the Arctic has weakened by 24% since 1980. This means that light distillate products without black carbon emissions, diesel particulate filters, or zero-carbon dioxide emission fuels will now need to be used in the Arctic region.

If we go back to the beginning of the article, if you are wondering about the name of the ship that was part of the 15-ship LNG fleet, which used the Northern Sea Route for the first time during the winter, was named by the Russian President Putin, received updates about its voyage during the trip, and was visited by Putin at the end of the journey where he thanked the crew, the ship's name is CHRISTOPHE de MARGERIE.