From The Barents Observer:
Leader of the company's Northern Sea Route Directorate says three powerful nuclear icebreakers will be able to keep the whole Arctic shipping corridor open through the winter and spring season. Previously, the company insisted it needed six vessels for the job.As part of its drive towards the Arctic, Russia has initiated a massive nuclear icebreaker program that includes the building of at least eight new vessels by year 2033.
Among them is three vessels of the Lider class.
However, the nuclear power company now signals that it might not need that many new icebreakers after all. In an interview with newspaper Korabel, leader of the company’s Northern Sea Route Directorate Vyacheslav Ruksha explains that three new icebreakers will be able to keep the entire route open for daily shipments through the whole year.
Previously, we believed that almost six vessels would be required, he told Korabel.
The reason for the reduced number of needed icebreakers is the powerful icebreaking capacities of the LNG carriers shuttling the route. According to Ruksha, recent experimental shipments across the NSR indicate that the so-called Yamalmax tankers are capable of breaking through major parts of the sea-ice themselves....
....MUCH MORE
The icebreaking LNG carriers are rated for two metres (6.5 feet) of ice and we are still weeks away from the average peak for extent and thickness - which combined give us volume, see smaller graph in the map from the Danish Meteorological Institute:
As just one example of the good fortune the Christophe de Margerie experienced on its recently completed transit of the NSR, look at the Bering Straits, top center. The ice colored green would be off limits to the LNG carriers. Now the ice in the Straits is doing better than it has for a half-decade but still, the very Russian-looking gospodin Ruksha may be optimistic about shipping without the help of icebreakers in April.
For comparison here is the DMI map for the same date in 2016:
