CONTEXT:

• Russia launched the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ‘Ural’ at the Baltic Shipyard in St Petersburg in order to improve its ability to tap the Arctic’s commercial potential.
• Russia is preparing for shipping via the Northern Sea Route (NSR).

BACKGROUND:

• The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Novaya Zemlya and specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait.
• The entire route lies in Arctic waters and within Russia’s exclusive economic zone.
• According to a U.S. Geological Survey estimates, the Arctic region has about 22% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas and it probably holds oil and gas and it probably holds oil and gas reserves equivalent to 412 billion barrels of oil.