"Polar Thaw Opens Shortcut for Russian Natural Gas"

"YURKHAROVSKOYE GAS FIELD, Russia -- The polar ice cap is melting, and if executives at the Russian energy company Novatek feel guilty about profiting from that, they do not let it be known in public."

"From this windswept shore on the Arctic Ocean, where Novatek owns enormous natural gas deposits, a stretch of thousands of miles of ice-free water leads to China. The company intends to ship the gas directly there.

'If we don’t sell them the fuel, somebody else will,' Mikhail Lozovoi, a spokesman for Novatek, said last month with a shrug."

Andrew E. Kramer reports for the New York Times July 24, 2013.

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"With Arctic ice melt, ships now ply the Northern Sea Route" (GreenSpace/Philadelphia Inquirer)