Barents Sea Cargo Traffic – New Report

New report indicates Increased activity in the Russian Arctic requires better cooperation between Russian & Norwegian ports

The report “Development of marine Russian-Norwegian trade facilities in Northern Norway” has studied the development potential for the main ports of northern Norway. The report  is written by Norwegian Akvaplan Niva and the St. Petersburg company Gecon, with support from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat and Maritime Forum, informs the 'Barents Observer'.

The amount of cargo transport of raw materials through the Barents Sea is already at a significant level.  Russia’s increased activity in the Arctic, the growth of commercial traffic through the northern sea route and more offshore petroleum activity in Russia are all important factors to the expected growth in traffic from Northwest Russia through the Barents Sea. Murmansk is probably the port which has had most of the growth, with a doubling of the cargo flow since 2003.

The growth in international cargo transport to and from Russia through the Barents Sea has become a big challenge for Russian ports. At the same time there are well developed ports in Northern Norway, with access to a good transport infrastructure, there are available areas and a good capacity to handle the increased amount of cargo.

The report also focuses on EU strategy on marine traffic in the Arctic. Key issues are the focus within EU, Norway and Russia, and on the regional level in Norway and Northwest Russia.

The report concludes that the ports in both Norway and Russia could be developed into dynamic transport hubs for storage, transfer, selling and redistributing of raw materials and other cargo for the international market.

The full report may be downloaded here.