Late Independent NSR Transit with shore support for a safe Arctic Transit

Erik Almkvist

Icebreaker Captain and Lead Ice advisor

Viking-Ice Consultancy

� A Viking Group company

� Based in Kristiansand, Norway

� A part of the Viking Group with affiliated offices in Russia and Canada

� Offers services within marine operations in the Arctic and cold

environments

� Knowledge and experience from Alaska, Canadian Arctic, Greenland,

Barents Sea, Russian Arctic, Sakhalin and the Baltic

Viking Ice Consultancy

NE Greenland Ice-breaking/seismic support

2012 & 2013, ice-mgt in 2008

West Greenland Moved more than 200 ice-

bergs during 2010 & 2011

Baltic SeaSeasonal Icebreaking since

2000.

Sea of OkhotskIce-management and

supply operations in ice

2012-2016

Kara/PechoraSeaIce management

2014-2017

AlaskaIce-management and

anchorhandling 2007,

2010, 2012, 2014-2017

The North PoleIce management

and core drilling

2004

Barents Sea Eni Norway, all duties 2011-

2016

Northern SearoutePassage of the Northern

Searoute 6 times

CanadaIce berg management Grand

Banks Canada for Chevron and

Husky Energy (2012 and 2013)

Where

we havebeen

VSS1

Slide 4

VSS1 Add 2007 on the Alaska operationerik.almkvist; 2016-10-07

Integrated Ice, Met ocean and Logistic

servicesTurnkey supply

Challenging operations

� Vessel transit in polar and sub polar areas.

� Research

� Station keeping in ice on DP

� Offshore mooring operation in ice

� Service of fixed installation in ice

� Ice Management and ice Defense

� Iceberg towing

� Ice breaking support

VSS2

Slide 6

VSS2 Some more to add?# Tracking of ice movments with remote senssing and realtime movments with beacons. (we have the AIS bouyes)# Prestudy of operational areas, (this might go under planning or preplanning.)erik.almkvist; 2016-10-07

Viking Supply Ships – Fleet overview

12 of 18 vessels either high ice-class or ice-breaker

Loke Viking class

With it’s high ice-class and winterization the Loke Viking class is the ideal vessel for

sub-arctic operations

Vessels

Design

Built

Ice-class

BP/ deck

NSR

4

VS-4622L

2010-2012

Ice 1A, deice C

235-257 tonnes bollard

pull

Tor Viking class

Combined Ice-breaker and AHTS suitable in harsh environment

operations as well as the arctic

3

KMAR 808

2000-2001

Icebreaker Ice-10/ARC 7

202 tonnes bollard pull

4

Odin Viking

Medium sized AHTS suitable for world-wide

operations, with a proven track-record in

the North Sea

1

Moss Mar 424

2003

N/A

180 tonnes bollard pull

Frigg Viking class

Medium sized PSV vessels with DP-2.

5

VS-470 Mk ll

2003-2007

N/A

710 sq. meters

SMA Icebreakers

Icebreakers owned by Swedish Maritime

Administration. VSS crewing and Technical

management

5

Icebreaker

1973-1989

1A Super – Polar 20

50-250 tonnes bollard pull

3

Seattle to Sweden

Why NSR instead of Panama ?

• Finished seasonal work in Alaska

Nov 15th

• 2400nm Shorter distance (9500-

7100)

• Be back in North Sea earlier for

job opportunities

• Save Fuel?

• Good experiences with previous

transits

• Increase Arctic in-house

knowledge

• Good and reliable Ice and hydro

metrological information from

partners and suppliers

• Icebreaker from Rosatomflot in

area

NSR Transit would not be started if Russian Icebreaker is not in area or

poor availability of ice and met ocean information

Polar Waters where regime will be implemented

Polar code Areas

Operational Risk

Assessments

Operational Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment -Voyage Planning

• Risk Assessments carried out in

cooperation between head office

in Copenhagen and Vessel, based

on PolarCode guidelines

• Voyage planning performed by

vessel crew.

• Satellite Imagery planning from

Viking-Ice shore center

• Ice and Metocean forecast

information planned and ordered

by Viking-Ice shore center

• Communications plan made by

vessel operations department.

VSAT/IRIDIUM

nsra.ru

Transit would not be executed if Russian Icebreaker not in area or lower

availability of ice and met ocean information

Ice and Met Ocean Products, Services and Delivery/Viewer used

Arctic and

Antarctic institute

Soumi NPP VIIRS (IR Sat) res 750 m

IceAnalysis daily

Ice Forecast 24, 48, 72

Ice Pressure Forecast

Recommended Route

Metocean forecast

StormGeo

Fleet DSS, Vessel tracking and large area

weather info

Icing Warning Forecasts

Online Portal including daily high res weather

routing

Point Forecasts (Vilkitsky)

Kongsberg

Satellite Services

Syntetic Aperture Radar Imagery:

Scheduling/Portal

Sentinel 1

Radarsat 2

Risat 1

Polar View Ice/

VTT/FMI

Polar View Ice onboard/onshore client

Sentinel 1 EWS

Barents and Kara Ice Thickness

Viking Ice

Consultancy

Daily operational ice products (GIS)

Ice advisory and daily teleconference

E Mail

Transas NaviSailor

Pdf, GeoTiff

Google Earth

E Mail

Installed SW

Online Portal

Pdf

ftp

Portal

Geotiff

Google Earth

PolarView Ice SW E-Mail

Pdf

Geotiff

Satellite Imagery Scheduling with assistance of KSAT/Savoir SW

• Started Planning on Dep Seattle approx

10 days before reaching Ice Edge

• See availability of free SAR imagery

(Sentinel 1)

• Then fill in gaps with Commercial

products (Radarsat 2, Risat1)

• Challenges to know exact ship speed for

tasking (Weather, Ice conditions

operational delay)

• Freshness is crucial 1-6 Hours optimum

• To slow delivery time or tasking, vessel

have passed the scene

• Will the ordered product cover your route?

Blue frames, Sentinel 1 EWS 40 m resolution Coverage from 30 nov-5 dec 2015

Optimal Satellite Imagery Scheduling

Optimal scheduling /delivery

Vessel in edge of image when satellite scene is taken.

Delivered onboard with an age of 1-6 hours

Track of Tor Viking

Track of Nuclear Icebreaker Vaygach assisting to the east with Tanker in notch

151201 1951 UTC Sentinel1 HH 40 m Res SAR Image trough PolarViewIce and KSAT

Tor Viking intersects Icebreaker Vaycach ice channel and follow the track to west

Areas of New Ice

Track of

Vaygach,

possible to

follow for

19hours

How to interpret SAR imagery onboard.

Communication

As expected VSAT communication coverage was kept to the middle of Laptev Sea on

satellite Eutelsat 172 NP and no coverage until online on Thor V in the Barents sea.

In the middle of the beams we had to change over to Iridium Pilot system where we had

ordered a package of 1000 MB. Total Use in Iridium was 500 MB for this period of 5

days. Additionally Iridium voice 523 minutes.

PolarIce – ViewIce & ICEMAR how to order and upload

Catalogue showing available products and age for your area

Order/download and then transfer to ECDIS

This was not possible onboard, supported from Shore Centre

Freshness is essential

Use onboard

• Methodology was to download satellite imagery to ECDIS system from PolarView Ice or KSAT

Portal

• Stop in Ice to identify ice drift and offsets from time of scene acquisition

• Identify leads and cracks with light ice

• Then use ice radar to do the local area fine navigation.

• The ship could increase speed from 5 to 12 knots using 3 (of 4) engines finding those areas

with lighter ice.

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

00247 - Shortcut.lnk

Decision support products from Shore Centre

Ice berg warning

In many cases the main focus

is on ice and ice conditions.

Very often there is a risk of

Polar low pressure which

suddenly can appear in Arctic.

Tor Viking encountered 3 in

row after leaving the ice and in

East Barents sea.

Wind speed was forecast 30

knots, but actual wind speed

was peaking 70 knots.

The visibility was close to zero

in the heavy blizzards.

Polar Low

Seattle-North N. Zemlja-Landskrona= 7080 nm (Voyage Plan)

Seattle-Panama-Landskrona= 9480 nm (Calculated 40 days, 920 m3 Marine Gas Oil)

Actual transit:

Departure Seattle 19/11-2015

Arrival Landskrona 20/12-2015

Seattle-North N. Zemlja-Landskrona 7190 nm and 30 days average speed 9,7 knots due to finding

good track in ice and archipelago transit in Norwegian Coast.

Fuel used: 1026 m3 Marine Gas Oil.

Voyage was initially planned with icebreaker assistance, due to independent ice navigation

without icebreaker assistance fuel consumption was higher than estimated.

Distance sailed in ice: 2545 NM

Time in Ice: 244 hours (10 days)

Average speed in ice: 10,4 knots.

Heaviest level ice was up to 1 meter thick with ridges up to 4 m sail height (South Laptev Sea)

Lowest recorded temperature: -27 C (N Laptev Sea/Vilkitsky)

Time, Distance and Consumption

Lessoned learned

• Longer planning phase is needed to avoid expensive emergency scheduling, Sat

acquisition plan for moving object is difficult

• All products to be tested well in advance

• Always have a backup plan with additional product. (Do not let vessel wait for info)

• Pricing on SAR imagery has decreased and is a very valuable tool for future Polar

shipping for safety and fuel efficiency

• For future voyages; we will be prepared with more imagery. We see how important

this is and without this info we may have waiting times of 7-10 day for IB

assistance

• Learn and gain more knowledge and experience about the imagery and the use in

real ice conditions.

• Human factors, do not underestimate darkness, remoteness and vessel movements

• Estimate fuel situation with or without Icebreaker assistance

• Wildlife protection

• Increase number of personnel for analysis of ice and met ocean products onboard

and shore support.

• Medical enhancement onboard for independent voyages

No assistance needed from Ice breaker

Many thanks for all the help from our suppliers and partners