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Trade turnover by Northern Sea Route grows by 20% in 2017

The Sabetta airport is the northernmost "air gates" of Russia and one of the biggest northern airports in the world

YEKATERINBURG, October 23. /TASS/. The trade turnover by the Northern Sea Route grew by 20% in 2017, acting head of the Urals customs department Maxim Chmora told TASS on Monday.

"The trade turnover by the Northern Sea Route in 2017 grew by 20%, though the amount of transported cargo is lightly lower," he said.

The Northern Sea Route - is the main sea route in the Russian Arctic. The Russian ministry of transport forecasts cargo turnover along the Northern Sea Route by 2020 will grow tenfold to 65 million tonnes a year. The Route crosses seas of the Arctic Ocean (Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukotka) and partially the Pacific Ocean (the Bering Sea). The Northern Sea Route from the Kara Gate to the Providence Bay is about 5,600km long. The distance between St. Petersburg to Vladivostok along the Northern Sea Route is more than 14,000km, while the distance vessels have to cover by the Suez Canal is more than 23,000km.

The Sabetta airport is the northernmost "air gates" of Russia and one of the biggest northern airports in the world. The airport has the strategic status for implementation of the LNG plant project in Yamal. The Yamal LNG plant is due to go operational in 2017. The project's cost is $27 billion. Practically total amount of future liquefied gas - 96% - is contracted already. Yamal LNG's shareholders are Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), and the Silk Road Fund (9.