Arctic News

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Even in these days of sanctions some things can be done between opposing parties:

Barents Sea cod quotas lowered by 20% for the third year in a row

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Norway has taken over the chair at the Arctic Council:

Arctic Council After Russia’s Handover: “We Are Still Here”

The Arctic Circle Conference was held in Reykjavik, Iceland last week. One of the headline speakers were US Senator Lisa Murkowski:

US Takes Responsibility for Being an Arctic Country - ArcticToday

Her speak in full:

Sen Murkowski Arctic Circle Speech: The New Arctic Vision of the United States...

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Isolated Russia invites faraway countries to upcoming Svalbard science center...

Norway is no longer on Russia’s list of cooperative partners. In August, Oslo was even downgraded from “unfriendly” to “very unfriendly” by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Interests in the centre have come from the scientific communities of the BRICS countries, including China, Brazil and India, as well as Turkey and Thailand,” Negrutsa said.

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The story about Pasvik River, forming the border between Finland, Norway and Russia:

Pasvik, the river that tells the High North

See Photo gallery at end of article.

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Few weeks before launch, Russia's biggest LNG project is put on U.S sanction...

Among the entities targeted is Arctic LNG 2, the company that is in the process of developing the major natural gas project in the far northern Gydan Peninsula.
Arctic LNG 2 will be Russia’s biggest LNG project and is due to start production already in early 2024.

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Mitsui & Co. invests in Arctic LNG 2 operating company

A dilemma:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-03/us-sanctions-on-russian-lng-may-threaten-japan-gas-security-push#xj4y7vzkg

The French are assessing:

TotalEnergies says assessing impact of US sanctions on Arctic LNG 2

“The consequences of the designation of Arctic LNG 2 as a SDN (special designated nationals) entity by the US authorities on TotalEnergies’ contractual commitments to Arctic LNG 2 are currently being assessed,” a spokesperson for TotalEnergies said.

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Newest submarine launched Bulava missile from White Sea

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Residents of Svalbard make their voices heard:

Svalbard residents on the boycott of Russia, climate change, and search for a...

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The faith of soldiers from the Kola Peninsula fighting in Ukraine:

“Maybe he would be dead already, but it wouldn’t be so disgusting.” Instead...

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You can’t escape the pressure of modern communication, even at 79 North:

World’s northernmost research settlement gets mobile phone service

“It is expensive to establish coverage here. It has also been important to adapt to all sensitive equipment so that they are not exposed to radio interference,” Amundsen says.
For this reason alone, it is not allowed to use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the settlement.
Everyone arriving at Ny-Ålesund will get an SMS informing them to turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on all devices they bring.
The transmitter provides for 4G network and is the northernmost mobile phone coverage in the world at nearly 79 Degrees North.

Ny-Ålesund Research Station

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DP World and Rosatom forge JV for Northern Sea Route:

NSR operator Rosatom and DP World signed in June a cooperation agreement to “develop pilot container shipping between Northwest Europe and East Asia using the Arctic support transport infrastructure”.
Source: https://www.tradewindsnews.com/containerships/russia-and-dp-world-forge-venture-to-send-container-ships-through-the-arctic/2-1-1542809

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Who say i is going to be easy to “go green”?:

Activists block test-drilling for minerals in Lapland

For Sakatti Mining Oy, a Finnish subsidiary of the giant Anglo American mining company, potential mining will for environmental reasons take place deep underground with no surface installations inside the nature reserve.
Current test borings aimed to estimate the potential for metals, however, are carried out from a rig on the earth’s surface.

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Will Russia soon publish their own “xx-dash line” in the Arctic?:

Moscow aims for another grab: Navy Chief says Russia will expand into Arctic...

Russia has long claimed a large swath of seabed along the Lomonosov Ridge, but the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has not yet completed its assessment of the claims.
Nevertheless, Nikolai Yevmenov appears confident that Russia will ultimately get its will in the area. In his speech in St.Petersburg, he argued that the UN Commission this year has confirmed its consent with Moscow’s requested point coordinates in the Arctic Ocean.

Today, no country owns the geographic North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it.
The surrounding Arctic states are limited to a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off their coasts. The Arctic coastal states do however have continental shelves that extend beyond the EEZ.

Russia is still negotiating with the United Nations Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf over its Arctic shelf claims. Norway got its claims to a 235,000 square kilometres shelf area approved in 2009.

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Pumped hydro as a “battery” to store excess wind or solar power has been mentioned here before
The Finns may be the first to do so at scale:

Lapland gets pumped-storage hydropower in drive towards green transition

Finland is working hard to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. New wind farms and solar panels are part of the solution, but what to do when you have no wind and the sun is under the horizon mid-winter?

A loop-pumped storage hydropower system uses two water reservoirs at different elevations, one higher than the other.

Finland is known as “the land of the thousand lakes” so it’s just a question of picking the right ones to start with.

PS> Lapland has just as many hours of daylight in a year as anywhere else, but it comes in “lumps”.

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To reach the goals set for the NSR Russia need more and larger high ice classed ships:

Severodvinsk could get new giant shipyard for ice-classed vessels

Development of the Northern Sea Route is high on Putin’s agenda to ship 80 million tons along the Arctic seaway in 2024 and later to 150 million tons in 2030 and 220 million tons by 2035.

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The "North Pole" is drifting towards Franz Josef Land

“Until recently, it was expected that the drift would bring us to the Fram Strait. An exit into the area of Franz Josef Land looked like a more unlikely alternative. But lately, we have circled in the waters north of this archipelago, which by itself is an interesting result,” Filchuk said to newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

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Bowhead whale skull in Utqiagvik (TravelingOtter via CreativeCommons)

Indigenous knowledge is moving towards the top of the Arctic agenda -...

Such expertise is often referred to as indigenous knowledge. Controversial at times and for many years largely unrecognized by western science, but now so much more in the limelight.

For the last few years, political calls for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in all sorts of scientific and political endeavors have been issued by powerful institutions like the Arctic Council, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Whaling Commission, the global Biodiversity Convention and others.
Still more scientists and decision makers argue that indigenous knowledge systems of the Arctic may help build stronger efforts against climate change, strengthen protection of peoples and communities and perhaps even inspire the entire world.
The problem is, that very few know exactly how to go about it. How does one square indigenous knowledge, most of it unwritten, with modern science as scientists with university degrees understand it?

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Not only the US as a “boarder problem”:

Eleven Iranians arrested by Finnish border guards after illegal crossing from...

The Iranians, all of them men, were arrested in the area between Nuijamaa and Joutseno on January 11, 2024. They have applied for asylum.
The area is densely forested and the group made it by foot through the terrain. The illegal crossing most likely took place between the border crossing points of Imatra and Nuijamaa.
Temperatures in the area are down to minus 20 and there is a 40 cm layer of snow, information from the Finnish Meteorological Institute [shows]

The Finnish Government is doing something about it:

Finnish Prime Minister: the border with Russia must remain closed

PS> The Finnish boarder with Russia are also the boarder of the Schengen boarder free area in Europe: Schengen Area - European Commission

That leaves only ONE boarder crossing between the Schengen-area and Russia that is open for legal traffic; Storskogen in Norway:

Storskog is now only land border to Europe open for Russian tourists

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Arctic Council report analyzes flag states and legal obligations in Arctic...

The report, “Flag States of Ships in the Arctic,” was done by the Arctic Council’s Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) working group using data from its Arctic Ship Traffic Data Base.
PAME is one of the Arctic Council’s six working groups and is comprised of international experts.The teams examine issues ranging from environmental protection, to sustainable development, to emergency response in the Arctic.

The Arctic Ship Traffic Database was established by PAME in response to the surge in Arctic ship activity and the lack of up-to-date information, includes figures dating back to 2013.

Legal obligations

The report stresses the importance of understanding which countries’ ships are in the Polar Code area as it has implications for safety and conservation.
“Ship registration – or the flag under which a ship sails – plays a vital function in maritime safety and security as well as protection and preservation of the marine environment,” the report said.
“By linking a ship to a State, the system of ship registration creates international legal rights and obligations, both for the ship and for the State whose flag the ship flies.”

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At last the sun is back:

Icy shipping on the Northern Sea Route. Photo: RN Vankor

Terror haunts Suez Canal. Moscow wants shippers to look to its far northern...

A total of 36,254 million tons of goods were in 2023 shipped on the Northern Sea Route. That is about 10 million tons less than the original target desired by Russian ruler Vladimir Putin. In a strategy document from 2022, the forecast for 2023 is set to more than 46 million tons.

If you can’t reach the wharf there are ways:

Shipment on the Yenisey to Rosneft’s Vostok Oil project. Photo: RN-Vankor