R ussian energy exports are growing fast as that huge country builds up its oil and gas industries and seeks new customers for their products. Proven Russian oil reserves are the seventh largest in the world, while there is an even greater potential in the vast areas of Siberia and the Far East as yet unexplored. But a quick look at an atlas will demonstrate that while there may be vast quantities of oil and gas available in Russia, getting it to overseas markets is a major challenge. Geography, topography and meteorology have not been kind to the Russian oil exporter, with only routes through Black Sea ports and the Turkish Straits being free of ice all year. In the Baltic, the Russian Arctic and the ports of the Russian Far East tankers have to contend with sub-zero temperatures and ice conditions which can be very severe. In the Gulf of Finland, the oil port of Primorsk is being rapidly expanded and could become Russia's biggest oil export port in the next few years. But during the winter, outbound tankers have to contend with more than 100 miles of thick ice, requiring specially strengthened “Ice-class” vessels with thicker steel on the waterline along with more powerful engines and the attendance of powerful icebreakers to assist the tankers in breaking free from the sheet ice. The port of Murmansk in the Barents Sea is far beyond the Arctic Circle and a good deep water port, with the Gulf Stream stopping the sea from freezing. However, during the winter the air temperatures are far below freezing, the sun never rises and tankers bound to and from this port have to contend with terrible winter conditions north of Norway, which might see thousands of tonnes of ice freezing on deck as the sea washes aboard in winter storms. A number of other Arctic ports are being upgraded to ship out oil, but these require very strong ice-strengthened tankers which are escorted through the ice-fields by a fleet of giant nuclear powered icebreakers. The costs of building heavily reinforced vessels and operating them in these challenging conditions are high. Ports in the island of Sakhalin and Sea of Okhotsk on Russia's Pacific Coast are no less difficult, with temperatures during the winter months averaging 32 degrees C and sea ice of more than one metre thick to be broken. Operating big ships in these conditions requires specialist expertise and the employment of professional Ice Masters and crews who are used to the conditions and accustomed to working with icebreakers. It is also requiring substantial investment in new ports, pipelines and a modern infrastructure capable of delivering the oil through inhospitable territory, to the export ports, along with ice-strengthened tankers, which cost up to 20% more than conventionally constructed ships But Russian oil is increasingly essential to the industrialised world and this is urgent work.