Russian icebreaker ends longest navigation season
© RIA Novosti. Vera Kostamo

Russian icebreaker ends longest navigation season

The nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy  has successfully completed a long, unprecedented navigation season after escorting a three-ship convoy comprised of the module carrier AUDAX, the freighter Arktika-1 and the tanker Shturman Ovtsyn along the Northern Sea Route, TASS reports, quoting the press service of  Rosatomflot.

Rosatomflot's Deputy Director for Fleet Operations Andrei Smirnov said, "This is the first late-season straight-through transit season, running from December 2016 through early January 2017, with one icebreaker escorting three vessels of different types."

The first two vessels sailed to Sabetta and delivered construction materials for the unfinished Yamal LNG plant, and the third ship took on crude oil at a Novoportovskoye oilfield terminal near Cape Kamenny.

It took 14 days to reach the Gulf of Ob, TASS reports. The icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy sailed into the Chukchi Sea, met the vessels near the Bering Strait, and escorted them to their destinations.

The 50 Let Pobedy is currently escorting other vessels, including some from the Murmansk Shipping Company and the Northern Project transport company, toward the Gulf of Ob along with the icebreaker Taimyr. Both icebreakers are escorting Gazprom Neft tankers to Cape Kamenny.