Third Time’s a Charm for Shell On May 25, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) August 2011 decision to permit Shell to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off Alaska’s north shore. The Native Village of Point Hope and the Inupiat Community of the North Slope […]
According to data from the Joint Organization Data Initiative, Saudi Arabia has surpassed Russia as the world’s largest oil producer, a position which the latter country held for six years. The Middle Eastern kingdom’s oil production rose to a 31-year high last year, while Russia’s dropped. As Matthew Hulbert writes in his analysis for Forbes, […]
The Cable reports that President Barack Obama and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) are behind a renewed effort to have the Senate ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Kerry, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, has been trying to set up hearings since last year, but Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the top-ranking Republican […]
The Royal Canadian Navy’s plans to acquire six to eight ice-capable Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) are facing yet another obstacle. On Tuesday in the Canadian House of Commons, the 2012-13 Reports on Plans and Priorities were tabled. The reports sum up the expected revenue, expenditures, and projects of each government agency and department in Canada. National Defence’s […]
Lloyd’s of London, the British insurance company, and Chatham House, a London-based think tank, have released a report together entitled, “Arctic Opening: Opportunity and Risk in the High North.” The report states that four key industries will be the “biggest drivers and beneficiaries of Arctic economic development.” They are: mineral resources (oil, gas, and mining), […]
The Canadian government recently announced the results of the bidding process to construct vessels for the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. Canada plans to spend $33 billion on 28 large combat and non-combat vessels over the next 30 years. As part of that procurement the Royal Canadian Navy is slated to receive six to eight Arctic […]
The flagship of Canada’s aging fleet of icebreakers suffered mechanical failure to its center propeller on September 19 and has been anchored off the coast of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut since September 27. The 42-year old St-Laurent had been on a joint mission with the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy to conduct bathymetric surveys and mapping of the […]
An exceptional wildfire near Bettles, Alaska in 2007 released as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the entire Arctic tundra absorbs in a year according to a new report in the journal Nature. The Anaktuvuk River fire lasted for more than three months and burned across more than 1,000 sq km in central Alaska. […]
Scientists at the University of Bremen confirmed today that on September 8, 2011 Arctic sea ice extent reached a new all-time low, superseding the previous low set in September 2007. Arctic sea ice extent undergoes a pronounced yearly cycle, with about 15 million square kilometers in March and 5 million square kilometers in September. Since […]
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has secured a contract with Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, to explore the floor of the Arctic Ocean for oil. At a surprise signing ceremony in Sochi, site of the coming Winter Olympics, Vladimir Putin stated, “The scale of the investment is very large. It’s scary to utter such huge figures.” […]