Rapid change characterized the Arctic in 2012. Sea and land ice melt set new records, as did Arctic shipping along the Northern Sea Route. Exploration, northern infrastructure, and oil and natural-gas development all continued to expand as the Arctic opened. The year began with a dramatic story of international cooperation between Russia and the U.S. when severe winter storms left the residents of Nome, Alaska, without fuel. In January the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy led the Russian tanker Renda through 500 km (300 mi) of sea ice to resupply the community. After several weeks the Renda anchored near Nome, and 4.9 million litres (1.3 million gal) of diesel and gasoline were off-loaded through a hose laid across the frozen harbour.
Shipping along the Northeast Passage (called the Northern Sea Route in Russia) increased again in 2012, facilitated by an early melt of summer Arctic sea ice. With the ice receding, shipping was allowed to begin in August along that route, which halved the distance between many European and Asian markets compared with standard shipping routes. By October more than one million metric tons had been shipped, and Arctic shipping was projected to expand many times over in coming years with the continued retreat of sea ice. Fuels made up 50% of the goods shipped, and iron ore was 25% of the overall tonnage. The record for the fastest crossing of the passage was also set in 2012 when the Russian tanker SCF Amur transited it in just seven days.
The U.S. Senate decided to extend the service of the icebreaker Polar Sea through 2012. Its sister ship, Polar Star, was reactivated in December. Canada’s Arctic research vessel was also in dry dock for 2012. Canada’s new icebreaker, the John G. Diefenbaker, was scheduled to be completed in 2017. China’s second icebreaker entered the design phase in 2012, and it was due to join the Xuelong (Snowdragon) in 2014. With the largest fleet of active icebreakers, Russia unveiled plans to build an additional five: four diesel-electric powered and one nuclear-powered. The Shell Oil Co. commissioned the icebreaker Aiviq in 2012 to support Shell’s oil and gas operations in the Arctic.
After Shell had spent several years securing the proper permits, its plans to drill offshore in 2012 were delayed owing to weather and the complicated logistics of the Arctic environment. The company was able to carry out preparatory work, however, and laid plans to drill in the 2013 season. Delays also had an impact on Russia’s first Arctic oil platform. Gazprom’s Prirazlomnoye rig remained on site but did not drill in 2012. Greenpeace activists occupied the rig in August to draw attention to concerns regarding Arctic drilling.
Onshore oil and gas development continued apace in 2012. The $16 billion Canadian Mackenzie valley pipeline was put on hold because gas was developed from sources that were closer to markets. A proposed pipeline along the Alaska Highway was also set aside in favour of a pipeline in Alaska that was to be combined with liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tanks and a tanker terminal. The projected cost of the 1,300-km (800-mi) pipeline and terminal was $65 billion. In Russia Gazprom began exploration of the massive Arctic gas field on the Yamal Peninsula. The field had an estimated reserve of 4.9 trillion cu m (173 trillion cu ft) of natural gas. In July Russia began construction of an LNG port facility along the Yamal coast. At the same time, Russia also began construction of a 500-km (300-mi) oil pipeline to connect the Trebs field on the Yamal Peninsula with the broader Russian oil pipeline network. In April the Trebs field had an uncontrolled spill of 2,200 metric tons of oil onto the tundra.
In 2012 the Arctic continued to warm precipitously. As economic development advanced, summer sea ice retreated. Summer Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum coverage on September 16. This represented a record loss of more than 50% of the ice when compared with the 20-year average of between 1980 and 2000. At the same time that the ice extent was reduced, the sea ice was also thinning. The Polar Science Center estimated that the overall volume of Arctic sea ice dropped 75% compared with the 20-year average. Changes to the Arctic ice cover affected local climate, but they also had an impact on continental weather patterns by increasing the variability of the jet stream.
The accelerated melting of sea ice also fed back into other major climate drivers. One of those was the melting of land ice. In July NASA announced that seasonal ice melting was occurring across 97% of the Greenland ice sheet. At that point Greenland’s melt had already surpassed the record melt season of 2011. Researchers with NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment estimated that since 2002 Greenland had lost approximately 250 cu km (60 cu mi) of melted ice each year. The melt appeared to be increasing.