region:russian far east

MOL to Develop Northern Sea Route Shipping with Russia – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/mol-to-develop-northern-sea-route-shipping-with-russia

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has reached an agreement with the Russian government to help develop maritime shipping along the Northern Sea Route and the Russian Far East as melting ice in the Arctic makes commercial shipping in the region a more viable option for transporting cargoes from between Europe and Asia.

MOL signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday with the Far East Investment and Export Agency under the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East to cooperate with each other on the development.

MOL has been working with Russia on the chartering of vessels for Russia’s Yamala LNG Project, the world first large-scale energy project that exports LNG cargoes through the Northern Sea Route. MOL’s first of three icebreaking LNG carriers for the project, named Vladimir Rusanov, is slated to enter service at the end of March. MOL has also been working on feasibility study with PAO Novatek, the largest independent gas producer in Russia and the main shareholder of the Yamal LNG project, which is aimed at establishing an LNG transshipment terminal and marketing complex in the Kamchatka area.

Wildfires rage in Siberia and Russian Far East
▻http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/news/n0674-wildfires-rage-in-siberia-and-russian-far-east

http://siberiantimes.com/upload/information_system_40/4/3/5/item_4359/information_items_4359.jpg

Warming weather has unleashed a wave of forest fires, with the Republic of Buryatia, and regions TransBaikal and Amur badly hit. In one day alone 10,000 hectares of forest in the Russian Far East was burned down, with dozens of homes lost. 

The scale was less than in Canada’s dramatic fires, but is a reminder of the grave threat annually facing many Russian regions. Head of the Federal Forestry Agency Ivan Valentik blames people for much of the carnage. 

’99% of all fires in the Amur region, the Trans-Baikal region and Buryatia are caused by people who set fire to grass,’ he said. He warned that the tradition of burning dried grass ahead of the sowing season - popular since Soviet times - is now against the law.

http://siberiantimes.com/PICTURES/ECOLOGY/Wildfires-May-2016/inside_map.jpg

via la @petite_sorciere (pseudo modifié…)

Putin ratifies east-route gas pipeline agreement with China
▻http://www.globalpost.com/article/6536108/2015/05/02/putin-ratifies-east-route-gas-pipeline-agreement-china

(Xinhua) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ratified a gas supply agreement with China via the so- called Eastern route.
“The agreement is aimed at strengthening the Russian-Chinese energy cooperation, and defines the main terms of the natural gas supply from Russia to China through the East-Route, including the cross-border section of the gas pipeline across the Amur River ( the Heilongjiang River in China) near Blagoveshchensk (capital of the Amur region in the Russian Far East) and China’s border city of Heihe,” an online official statement said.
The agreement was passed on April 24 by parliament’s lower house, or the State Duma, and approved by the upper chamber namely the Federation Council five days later.
During Putin’s official visit to China last May, the two sides signed a 30-year gas supply contract that will see the East-Route Pipeline start providing China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from 2018.

La suite de la dépêche annonce l’autre ratification du jour : la participation de la Russie au BRICS Fund.