Arctic Yearbook 2015 | Page 42

42 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