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Arctic Yearbook 2015
Fuel is shipped in small tonnage vessels by sea and navigable rivers to the settlements. In cold seasons,
winter roads are operable for the delivery of goods to remote and difficult to access locations.
In northern Yakutia and Chukotka, waterway and highway networks are not reliable for supplying
consumers and enterprises with fuels given the settlement and productive force pattern now in place.
In recent years, shallow waters in navigable sections of rivers have added to the complexity of the
long-standing issue of northern delivery. In 2013, for example, this resulted in a delivery failure to the
Indigirka and sudden freezing of winter roads to deliver fuels by more expensive motor transport, and
even usage of a military helicopter to transport diesel fuel, to a small remote village. The updating of
the delivery scheme led to additional expenses totaling up to 900 million rubles financed from the
regional budget. In addition, the forced outage of vessels was estimated at 900 million rubles (Tajurskij
2013). The high risks of delayed goods delivery in the required volumes will continue given the existing
levels of transport infrastructure development. In the short- and medium-term, a significant rise in
energy consumption is unlikely.
During the past decade, a decrease in the efficiency of fuels transportation and usage has been evident.
Delivery and consumption of oil, gas condensate, natural gas, and oil products are increasing alongside
a reduction in coal mining, including those coals extracted from the Arctic zone.
In 2002-2014, costs of diesel fuel increased by almost 5 times (from 11 to 50 rubles per liter), and that
of electric power by 4 (from 1.05 to 4.43 rubles per kW/hr) (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Fuel price movement in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), 2002.
Source: data of the Russian Statistics and the Regional Economy Commission, State Committee for Price, Republic of
Sakha (Yakutia), various years.
Rat es of diesel fuel and electricity price increases were higher than inflation rates, which averaged 811% annually and in 2014 reached its peak at 16%. In 2014, fuel expenditures cost 1.2 billion rubles.
State Support of Delivery of Fuel & Energy Resources