Interview Guide 1. The preliminary set of questions for the respondent of Barents Ramboll:
1. Recently, mass media starts to report about overcapacity of Suez and Panama Canals, the main trading arteries. How do you think if this is a true?
2. Can the development of Northern Sea Route (NSR) become a worthy alternative to Suez Canal?
3. Despite of distance reduction advantage (for example, the distance traversed by vessels from the port of Murmansk to the port of Yokohama (Japan) through NSR is only 5770 nautical miles, through Suez Canal - 12,840 nautical miles), NSR has important disadvantage: its seasonality. Ice doesn’t allow to provide the whole-year navigation.
How do you believe, can it be fixed by the modern technological achievement (for example, using of icebreakers) and will it be profitable for clients of NSR?
4. In your opinion, will the broadening of Suez Canal affect the development of NSR?
5. Now, main users of NSR are Russian companies, such as Gazprom, Norilsk Nickel, Lukoil. In 2009, the German company Beluga Group sent two of their ships through NSR. How do you propose, which companies will be highly interested in development of NSR?
6. How do you think, can spreading of piracy in southern trading routes become one of the prevalent criteria in decision acceptance of shipping route?
7. It is assumed that NSR will mainly serve for oil transportation, in your opinion, does NSR have a possibility to attract non-resourced clients?
8. How do you think, is Russian Federation ready for executing of the international trading route? If not, what should be done for this?
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8.2. Appendix 2
Interview Guide 2. The preliminary set of questions for the respondent of Beluga Shipping:
1. Could you please describe the risks, that Beluga group was faced while organizing the passage through the NSR?
2. Service of which insurance company did you use?
3. How did you manage to reduce the following risks:
- risk of damaging cargo?
- risk of being out of schedule?
4. If it is not a confidential data, what was the insurance premium?
5. How long did it take to make all the required documents for passing NSR?
6. Does such bureaucracy cost a lot?
7. Could you, please, name the documents and permissions that you have finally collected to get an approval from the Russian side?
8. How can you comment the condition of Russian northern ports? Are they ready for regular transit through NSR? What should be done first of all?
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8.3. Appendix 3
Interview Guide 3. The preliminary set of questions for the respondent of DNV:
1. What risks will be faced while navigating the Northern Sea Route (NSR)?
2. What is the best way to estimate these risks?
3. Could you suggest the ways of minimizing such risks? (Risks of damaging the cargo, risks of delays) What piece of advice would you give to a company, which decided to send their ships through NSR?
4. What shipping companies or ship owners does DNV cooperate now with?
5. In your opinion, should or can NSR be used for transit international container shipment?
6. Can the Double acting container ships be used for such transportation? Will that be safe?
7. The companies, that will send ships to NSR usually have to pay high insurance, but are there any ways to reduce the fee?
8. What are the limits for greenhouse gas emissions for the High North?
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8.4. Appendix 4
Interview Guide 4. The preliminary set of questions for the respondents of Ocean Futures:
1. What can be the consequences of wrong and careless nature management at the High North?
2. What are the limits for greenhouse gas emissions for the High North?
3. Can the more intensive navigation at the High North influence badly the ecological situation and probably cause an ecological disaster?
4. From an environmental point of view, Arctic shipping poses a threat to the regions unique ecosystems. Can this threat be effectively mitigated through careful planning and
effective regulation in areas of high risk? How?
5. Are there any special requirements that the ship should meet before it will be allowed to work at High North?
6. What do you think about Double Acting Ships? Are they appropriate for the use at the High North?
7. What are the main advantages of new series of circumpolar maps that are being developed by Ocean Futures in comparison to existing ones?
8. How the production of circumpolar maps can help in development of NSR?
9. Ocean Futures has been prosecuting the project Shipping in Arctic Waters on the base of gathered data by INSROP project since January,2009. How many changes have been already revealed in development of NSR as the shipping route since the last project ? 10. What parties are participating at this part of the project?
11. What sea routes are also analyzed during the project?
12. What are the preliminary results of the project?
13. Is it planned to finish the project this year, or it will be prolonged and further developed?
14. How do you think, is Russian Federation ready for executing of the international trading route? If not, what should be done for this?
15. Now, main users of NSR are Russian companies, such as Gazprom, Norilsk Nickel, Lukoil. In 2009, the German company Beluga Group sent two of their ships through NSR. How do you propose, which companies will be highly interested in development of NSR?
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16. It is assumed that NSR will mainly serve for oil transportation; in your opinion, does NSR have a possibility to attract non-resourced clients?
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8.5. Appendix 5.
Map of depths along NSR.
Source: http://benmuse.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d9cb353ef010535b9c90a970c-800wi