Russia sets speed record with Arctic trip to China

Russian gas company Novatek announced Thursday that a ship carrying its cargo of liquefied natural gas to China via the Northeast Passage reached its destination in a record 16 days.

The tanker named Vladimir Rusanov made the trip from Novatek's privately-owned Yamal LNG project in the European Arctic to Tianjin, "setting a new record" for a cargo ship without the help of ice-breakers, the company said.

The duration of the trip "is less than half the time required to transport a cargo of LNG along the traditional westbound route" through the Suez canal, it said.

The Vladimir Rusanov was built to plow through semi-cleared waters with LNG cargo, part of a fleet designed for the Yamal LNG project, which is jointly owned by Novatek, France's Total and PetroChina.

Russia has plans to further develop the so-called Northern Sea Route along the Arctic to the Pacific via the Bering Strait as climate change is making the waters more accessible for longer periods of the year.

It is a much shorter link of 13,000 kilometres to China compared to the traditional route via the Suez Canal, which is 22,200 km.

Moscow has invested in a fleet of icebreakers and ice-class tankers, hoping to further exploit the energy reserves of the strategic Arctic region.