Arctic ice melt lifts hopes for Russian maritime trade

SEVERODVINSK: When severe snowstorms prevented life-sustaining fuel supplies from reaching the frozen Alaskan town of Nome, US officials turned to a Russian company for help.

The relief mission through perilous, ice-choked seas was the first mid-winter fuel delivery to western Alaska, capping a year of pioneering shipping as oil and gas development and climate change increase traffic along northern trade routes sought by centuries of Arctic explorers.