Arctic Oil & Gas News

Japanese energy firms to explore for oil in Arctic , posted on Kuwait News Agency

Major Japanese energy developers will participate in an oil exploration project in the Arctic for the first time, a leading business daily here reported Monday. Japan’s largest oil explorer Inpex Corp. and the upstream subsidiary of the country’s top oil firm JX Holdings have set up a joint venture with three other energy developers, including the government-affiliated Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (Jogmec), the Nikkei Shimbun said. [Read More…]

Russia Enjoys Oil Boom in Arctic Circle by Tom McGregor, posted on Dallas Blog

President Barack Obama has forbidden US oil & gas companies from drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Park. Hence, Russian drillers can bask in the Arctic oil boom. The Moscow Times reports that, “Russia’s first Arctic offshore field Prirazlomnoye, where Greenpeace activists were arrested in September after a high seas clash with Russian authorities, has started production of oil, energy company Gazprom said Friday.” [Read More…]

Freed Khodorkovsky challenges Putin over ‘political prisoners’ by Michelle Martin and Steve Gutterman, posted on the Global Post

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said on Sunday he would not seek power in Russia but fight for the freedom of political prisoners, challenging Vladimir Putin two days after the president freed him from jail. After more than a decade in prison that made him a symbol of what Putin’s critics say is his intolerance of dissent, Khodorkovsky, 50, told reporters in Berlin that “the struggle for power is not for me”. [Read More…]

Russia starts pumping oil at Arctic rig, posted on Dawn.com

RRussia’s state-held energy giant Gazprom said on Friday it had launched production at an Arctic oil rig raided in September by 30 Greenpeace activists whom the authorities later detained for two months. The landmark announcement marked the formal start of Russia’s long-planned effort to turn the vast oil and natural gas riches believed to be buried in the frozen waters into profits for its ambitious government-run firms. [Read More…]