Arctic headache for ship insurers as routes open up

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When Captain Will Whatley guides a ship through Arctic waters, he is starkly aware of what can go wrong.

FILE PHOTO: Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship navigates through floating ice in the Arctic Ocean, September 15, 2020. Picture taken September 15, 2020. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Natalie Thomas/File Photo

So far, it’s unclear that the cost of a major accident would be completely covered by insurance. Damages from a ship spilling oil, hitting an iceberg or becoming marooned can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s “not like the rest of the world, with tried and tested shipping routes and known risks,” said Michael Kingston, an Arctic marine consultant and adviser to the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum on Arctic affairs.

The Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast is increasingly popular. In the four years up to 2019, the number of voyages that used at least part of that route increased by 58% to 2,694, according to a study by Norway’s Nord University.“This trade will get bigger and bigger,” said Andrew James, executive director of marine at the UK arm of insurance broker and risk manager Arthur J. Gallagher and Co. “Underwriters will have to respond to that.

That means much of an insurer’s cost is getting a damaged ship to back ports from remote locations. “The fees for the tug could run into millions of dollars,” said Gallagher’s James. “The claim itself could be quite small for the physical damage, but the overall claim could be a lot of money.” The Clipper Adventurer had to return to Europe for repairs. Its owners sued Canada for $13.5 million for the grounding, but lost the case, Canadian court records show. Canada counter-sued and was awarded some $445,000 for costs incurred for pollution control.In 2017, the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization introduced new standards for Arctic navigation including ship design and equipment, search and rescue protocols, and special training for captains.

The 14-member crew of the Northguider were evacuated and the fuel onboard safely removed. But it took another two years for the vessel to be fully salvaged, as work crews struggled to carve up the ship and remove it in pieces amid bouts of bad weather and months of darkness.

 

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PermaFrostMelt

Your headline doesn’t do this justice. I can sink a ship at the best of times least of all in situations such as this curious_twitt

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