MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Ice-breaking tankers for passing the Northern Sea Route (NSR) could be created together with Chinese companies, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, Executive Secretary of the Commission for the Russian President on the strategy of development of the fuel and energy industry Igor Sechin said.

"One of promising areas for potential cooperation is exploration of resources of the Arctic where the project of the Northern Sea Route, the shortest route for delivery of our energy resources to Asia, is being actively developed. A tanker fleet of high ice class will be required for operation of the NSR, which could be created in cooperation with Chinese shipbuilders and suppliers of components," he told a forum.

The Northern Sea Route is a shipping route and the main sea line in the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean. It stretches along Russia’s northern coastline across the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering seas). The route consolidates Russia’s European and Far Eastern ports and Siberia’s navigable rivers into a single transport system. The route’s length is 5,600 km, stretching from the Kara Strait to Providence Bay.