Year-Round Shipping in the Canadian Arctic: Ice Conditions and Regulatory Requirements

Extensive drilling programs took place in the High Arctic between 1969 and 1987. Large gas reserves were discovered with estimates of undiscovered potential up to 60 Tcf. Recently, the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) evaluated the economics for development of gas reserves for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and concluded that development could be viable. One of the main difficulties is to ensure that a reliable transportation system exists for bringing the gas to southern markets. Large tankers are a potential method for transit; therefore it is important to determine the year-round ice conditions that a tanker would encounter and determine the regulatory requirements based on Transport Canada Regulations. This will have a pronounced influence on the safety and on the cost of ship construction. In this paper, the historical ice conditions in shipping routes in the Canadian Arctic are analyzed. The coverage of the shipping lanes by multi-year ice is evaluated. Based on the knowledge of the year-round ice conditions that a tanker would encounter and applying Transport Canada Regulations, CAC2 is recommended as the lowest vessel class to operate on a year-round basis.