Russian tanker sails through Arctic without icebreaker for first time

A Russian tanker has travelled through the northern sea route in record speed and without an icebreaker escort for the first time, highlighting how climate change is opening up the high Arctic.

The Christophe de Margerie carried a cargo of liquefied
 natural gas from Hammerfest in Norway to Boryeong
 in South Korea in 22 days.

The $300m Christophe de Margerie carried a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Hammerfest in Norway to Boryeong in South Korea in 19 days, about 30% quicker than the conventional southern shipping route through the Suez Canal.

The tanker was built to take advantage of the diminishing Arctic sea ice and deliver gas from a new $27m facility on the Yamal Peninsula, the biggest Arctic LNG project so far which has been championed by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Read Patrick Barkham’s story on The Guardian - “Russian tanker sails through Arctic without icebreaker for first time.”

Phoney energy crisis merely a ploy to access off-limits gas

Waleed Aly.

Turns out manufacturing is alive and well in Australia. Only these days we're manufacturing crises. This week's exhibit is from the gas industry, which having witnessed the energy market regulator's grave warnings that we'd all be having cold showers in the dark in a couple of years, found itself summoned to the Prime Minister's table.

"It is not acceptable for Australia – shortly to become the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas – to not have enough gas for its own families and its own businesses," boomed Malcolm Turnbull ahead of the meeting. And he was right. What was far less clear was why this arrangement had been so perfectly acceptable for so long.

Read Waleed Aly’s story in the Sydney Morning Herald - “Phoney energy crisis merely a ploy to access off-limits gas.”