Global warming allows the Northern Sea Route (NSR) to be used as a potential alternative for Asia–Europe shipping. As a clean fuel, liquid natural gas (LNG) has been increasingly used as a marine fuel. This study aims to analyse the economic feasibility and CO2 emission reduction of using LNG-fuelled container ships to sail through the NSR, under the assumption that Sabetta will be developed into an LNG refuelling centre. We establish a shipping profit model and a CO2 emission model and then apply real data to them. Several scenarios are proposed to reflect the different circumstances in practice. We find that a shorter round-trip transit time and appropriate ship size are the most favourable factors for the proposed option. Although data suggests that it is often economically infeasible to deploy LNG-fuelled ships via the NSR, under certain circumstances where it is indeed cost-effective, considerable CO2 emission reduction can be achieved.

全球变暖使北海航线（NSR）成为亚欧航运的潜在替代方案。作为清洁燃料，液态天然气（LNG）已越来越多地用作船用燃料。这项研究的目的是在假设Sabetta将发展成为LNG加油中心的前提下，分析使用LNG燃料的集装箱船航行通过NSR的经济可行性和减少CO2排放。我们建立了运输利润模型和CO2排放模型，然后将真实数据应用于它们。提出了几种方案以反映实践中的不同情况。我们发现，较短的往返运输时间和适当的船只尺寸是建议方案的最有利因素。尽管数据表明通过NSR部署LNG燃料的船舶在经济上通常是不可行的，