On November 7 last year, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker called the Ob River left the remote Norwegian port of Hammerfest carrying a cargo of LNG bound for Japan. Normally, it would have headed south, passing through the Suez Canal to reach its destination. Instead, the ship ploughed east into the frigid waters of the Arctic ocean. After traversing an icy stretch called the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – which has only become accessible to commercial shipping in the past several years as the