As the Barents Observer website reports, mid-December shipping along the Russian Arctic coast has almost come to a full halt as usual—but the exception occurs in the Gulf of Ob, where ship traffic continues at a high pace at Novatek’s Utrenneye terminal, the major piece of infrastructure currently under construction on the eastern shore of the shallow bay. In the second week of December, there were 12 ships in the area of Utrenneye, 8 of them cargo ships.
Ice conditions are becoming increasingly difficult, and two icebreakers, among them the nuclear-powered Yamal, are keeping the waters open. According to ice maps from the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the ice sheet in parts of the Ob Bay is now between 30-100 cm thick.
