Russia has dispatched an unprecedented convoy of sanctioned oil tankers to within 500 nautical miles of the North Pole sending the fleet onto one of the most northerly commercial shipping routes ever attempted in the Arctic. The routing places Russia’s Arctic oil fleet among the northernmost commercial vessels ever recorded. AIS screen grab of Russian Arctic fleet steaming north on August 5, 2026. The scale of this summer’s Arctic oil traffic also stands in sharp contrast with previous navigation seasons. During all of last year’s four-month Arctic shipping season, approximately 13.1 million barrels of crude oil were transported eastward from Russia’s Arctic ports.