Arctic Oil & Gas News

Statoil Boosts Arctic Holdings with Greenland License by James Stafford, posted on OilPrice.com

Norway’s Statoil has been awarded a frontier exploration license for Block 6 offshore north-east Greenland, in the Arctic Ocean, with partners ConocoPhillips and Nunaoil. Statoil is seeking to position itself long-term in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, and some estimates hold Greenland’s offshore oil reserves at 20 billion barrels. The license has a 16-year exploration period, and Statoil will hold a 52% interest in the block, with ConocoPhillips holding 35% and Nunaoil, 12.5%. [Read More…]

Canada Lays Claim to Seabed Below North Pole by John Daly, posted on OilPrice.Com

Canada has thrown down the gauntlet to Russia with a claim of Arctic sovereignty that extends to the seabed under the geographical North Pole that Moscow also claims. The prize is that the Arctic is believed to contain as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered energy resources. According to a 2008 U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic holds an estimated 13 percent, or 90 billion barrels of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil resources and 30 percent of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources. [Read More…]

Last foreign Arctic 30 activist leaves Russia, posted on Scoop Independent News

Activist and Polish national Tomasz Dziemianczuk has left Russia, the 26th and final foreign member of the Arctic 30 to leave the country. This signals a new chapter in the campaign to save the Arctic. Before boarding his flight to Warsaw, Tomasz, 37, said: “I am very happy to be going home, but I don’t feel the same for the ship and its future. I am emotionally connected to both the crew and the ship and for me the case will be over when the ship is back in Amsterdam. We sailed north to take action against the oil companies lining up to profit from the melting Arctic sea ice and this is far from over. This was only a great beginning to our Arctic campaign.” [Read More…]

All foreign Greenpeace oil rig protesters have now left Russia by Samantha Stainburn, posted on Global Post

All 26 foreign Greenpeace activists who were detained by Russian authorities for protesting against oil drilling at an oil rig in the Arctic have left the country, Greenpeace has announced. The last to go was Polish national Tomasz Dziemianczuk, 37, who left Russia for Warsaw on Sunday. The activists, plus four Russians, sailed on a Dutch ship, the Arctic Sunrise, to an oil rig owned by a subsidiary of Russia’s state gas company Gazprom in September and attempted to climb onto it. [Read More…]