Global Warming Melts New Sea Lanes for Norilsk, ConocoPhillips

(Bloomberg) — Norilsk, the world’s biggest producer of nickel, is building its own shipping fleet to capitalize on the melting of the polar ice caps.

The company ordered five reinforced cargo vessels that can plow through the waters north of Siberia as new sea routes open. Norilsk is spending at least 320 million euros ($467 million) to buy reinforced vessels rather than rent both freighters and icebreaker escorts.


The thawing sea “has enormous economic implications, and commerce is going to push this ecological zone to the limit,” says Rear Admiral Timothy McGee, head of the U.S. Navy’s Meteorology and Oceanography Command.

Global warming, while threatening environmental disasters, is creating economic opportunity for shippers, makers of ocean cargo vessels and tour operators. New routes may expand access to the world’s second-biggest oil supply, deliver U.S. wheat to Asia 30 percent faster and increase Arctic tourism as much as 50 percent in a decade.

Bloomberg