Russia’s new Arctic port sees fivefold surge in goods

According to customs authorities in the Yamal-Nenets region the value of the goods customs-declared at Sabetta in 2016 had a fivefold increase from the previous year.

The increase comes as construction moves forward at the nearby Yamal LNG plant. Novatek and its partners intend to get the project in production in late 2017.

A total of 120 ships with goods subjected to customs declaration docked in Sabetta in 2016, more than twice the number of 2015. They delivered a total of 505,000 tons of goods with a value of $5.2 billion, TASS reports with reference to the Yamal-Nenets customs authority.

The shiploads came from China, Belgium, Germany, Egypt, Korea, the USA, Finland and Spain.

The deliveries to Sabetta continue also in winter. On January 4th, a ship owned by ZPMC Red Box Energy Services, a Netherlands-based marine-transport services provider, made it to Sabetta as the first cargo vessel to sail heavy construction modules along the Northern Sea Route during the winter months, the Arctic Journal reports.

Russian authorities have invested an estimated 70 billion rubles in the development of infrastructure, TASS writes.

The total goods volumes delivered to Sabetta in the first ten months 2016 amounted to more than nine million tons, Novatek leader Leonid Mikhelson told President Putin in a meeting in November.

More than 22,000 people now work in Sabetta.

When in full swing, the nearby Yamal LNG plant will produce an annual 16,5 million tons of liquified gas. The LNG will be shipped to buyers both in Europe and Asia, some of it along the Northern Sea Route.

The Yamal LNG project is operated by Novatek in cooperation with partners Total (20 percent), CNPC (20 percent) and the Silk Road Fund (9.9 percent).