The government of Greenland is building a new port in the capital, Nuuk. The old port is too small for the future activities in Greenlandic waters.
The new port, to be opened in 2014, will be both a container port with storage facilities and a hub-port for service of oil exploration.
The new port will be run by a company owned by four partners, the government of Greenland, the municipality of Sermersooq, the Royal Arctic Line shipping company and the port of Ålborg in Denmark.
A new award was introduced today here at the IPY 2012 conference in Montréal, Canada. The new price is for 1 million Canadian Dollars. The price is the Arctic Inspiration prize.
It will be rewarded annually to a group or individual who makes an extraordinary contribution of gathering Arctic knowledge and their plans to implement this knowledge, for the benefit of the Canadian Arctic, its peoples and therefore Canada as a whole.
The award will be given to teams working in the Canadan Arctic, but the teams can be from anywhere in the world. The first prose will be rewarded in December this year.
Gro Harlem Brundtland said in her keynote speech at the IPY 2012 conference in Montreal that not enough has been done for the last 20 years in decision making regarding environmental issues. This years marks the 20 year anniversary of the Rio conference, where the all important Rio declaration was signed and ratified.
Dr. Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway and a special envoy of climate change to the United Nations, encourages for more cooperative research in polar sciences.
“We also must ensure an easy access of data from the International Polar Year to the benefit of all researchers and communities,” she said before a crowd of over 2000 people in the Palais de Congrés in Montreal.
“We must also develop and maintain the important research stations, where both all states and participants should work together,” she said, again encouraging cooperation.
Talking about the progress after the Rio summit in 1992, she said that although some progress has been made, it is not enough. “Much has happened in 20 yeas, but not enough. Now, global warming is rapidly increasing, as well as the whorl population,” she said.
Dr. Brundtlant also mentioned that in a report she delivered last January, it was projected that the world demand for resources world grow fast, especially for food, water and energy.
“We need to identify what is important, the world needs to put scent on top for sustainability. The scientific research must point the way to the best decision making,” she said.
Coming up this summer is the Rio+20 summit, where she sees reason for optimism. “We need bold decision making in the Rio summit.”
She also identified polar research as more important then ever. “What is happening in the polar regions is more important for the whole world then we thought. Now we know its value,” she said.
The security at the IPY 2012 conference is very high, especially today. the last few days have been underlain by protesters here in downtown Montreal.
The students are protesting the decision of the government of Québec to raise the tuition fees. The fees will rise of 500 Canadian dollars for the next five years.
Around 100 people have been arrested in the protest which has seen the police using teargas to distribute protesters.
Arctic Portal has learned that the Quebec government has been raising taxes, especially on both the health care system and now education. Together they are around 70% of the income of the government.
The government wants to ensure the quality of the education system and therefore it feels the need to raise the tuition fees.
There are many security guards around the conference, searching bags and ensuring everything is safe. There were great concerns of protesters smuggling in the conference rooms to protest Jean Cherast, the Premier of Québec.
The tensions in the conference room were high but no protest was carried it whilst Cherast made his speech.
Danish presidency for the Council of European Union started in January 2012. It is the seventh time Denmark organizes and leads the work of the Council of Ministers.
Majority of Danish efforts has been put into maritime issues, including the maritime issues around the Arctic. Denmark is one of the Arctic states and the key player in Arctic maritime shipping industry.
Yesterday, Danish representatives did reach the agreement on a stronger European Safety Agency. The purpose of the Agreement is to ensure that the Agency is able to carry out its tasks in relation to maritime safety and the maritime environment is a better and more efficient manner.
The negotiations on the new European Maritime Safety Agency have been led by Denmark since the beginning of its EU Presidency. The EMSA has existed for ten years and it was decided that the current marine development bring the need to strengthen it structure both on European and international level.
The political agreement will be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.
Source: European Maritime Safety Agency
Exchange Scholarships for Icelandic and Norwegian Students in Arctic Studies Application deadline: 15th May 2012, for the academic year 2012-2013
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iceland and Norway signed a three year Memorandum of Understanding in Akureyri on September 29, 2011, concerning co-operation in the field of Arctic scientific research. Exchange scholarships for Icelandic and Norwegian Students in Arctic Studies are one of the key activities in this co-operation.
The scholarships in 2012/2013 will be 520€ per month for subsistence and a maximum 1.200 € travel grant. Minimum duration is one month and the maximum duration is 12 months.
The eligibility criteria are the same as for Nordplus Higher Education grants for studies or work placements, with the addition that doctoral students are also eligible for support. Priority will be given to Master and Ph.D. students and students wishing to study at Norwegian and Icelandic universities that are members of the University of the Arctic network.
Students should hand in their applications to the International office of their home institution.
Following documents need to be part of the application:
Source: University of the Arctic
This year´s event with its extensive program will present the modern cultural and daily life in the Nordic countries. The festival will include exhibitions, concerts and short movies presentations. The knowledge exchange will be possible through organized workshops, lectures and discussions. The festival starts today and will last until 26th of April.
The initiative is jointly organized by the Consulate General of Norway in Murmansk, Murmansk Department of the Finnish Consulate General in St. Petersburg, Consulate General of Sweden in St. Petersburg, the Information Office of the Nordic Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg and the Danish cultural institute in St. Petersburg
This year´s program includes exhibitions that deal with contemporary issues in the North. The Nordic Council of Ministers will present two events within the frames of their “Knowledge Building and Networking Program for the North – West Russia”.
Murmansk, being the largest city in the Arctic, located in the north – west Russia, offers many attractions for its visitors such as Northern Navy Museum, Regional History Museum, Shipping History Museum and Arctic Research Institute Exposition. Although Murmansk is a large complex, most sites of interest to visitors are within a fairly compact area in the city center.
Its international airport provides with daily connections to Tromso, Kirkenes in Norway and Helsinki in Finland. Domestic flights are available on the scheduled basis from Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Source: University of the Arctic
Governments of eight Arctic states agreed on closer cooperation with regards to search and rescue operations on the Arctic waters.
Representatives from Ministries of Defense from Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Russia, Sweden and United States met at the Canadian military base in Goose Bay later last week to discuss further cooperation in the High North.
It was the first time that northern chiefs of defense had an opportunity to meet. Gen. Walter Natynczyk, Chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, said after the meeting that he was very pleased with the discussions amongst the eight generals: “Certainly what we saw was a great sense of a spirit of co-operation amongst everyone. We were able to gain an understanding of the unique challenges each faces with regards to emergency response and for support to our civilian authorities”.
It was decided that from now on, the representatives of eight Arctic states will meet annually to discuss defense, search and rescue issues in the High North.
Source: Barents Observer
Statoil awarded Aker Solutions a contract today for hiring of an entirely new type of rig which represents an important technological advance for the industry. The category B rig will be an important contribution towards increasing recovery from existing fields.
Development of technology for increasing the recovery from operating fields is an area of commitment for Statoil. For the last year, the average oil recovery rate from Statoil operated fields has risen from 49 percent to 50 percent.
The category B rig is designed and equipped for the industrialization of drilling and intervention services in existing production wells and represent a new sort of service.
A cooperation with the supplier industry, Statoil has developed a new type of rig and well control system specially adapted to carry out well intervention and drilling operations in existing subsea wells.
This type of rig fills the gap between light intervention vessels (category A) and conventional rigs (category C). The category B rig with associated integrated services is expected to reduce operating costs for well intervention by as much as 40%.
Statoil and the licensees will enter into an eight-year contract with options for three times two years for the category B service. The estimated value of the contract is USD 1.9 billion. In addition to rig rental, the contract also includes rental of the necessary equipment and services to carry out well intervention, sidetrack drilling, ROV operations, well testing and cementing. The rig will be in service during 2015.
Source: World Maritime News
The Russian government announced that the emergency and rescue centers are to be open along the Northern Sea Route.
Russian hopes for the future of NSR bring the country´s investments of more than 20 million Euros into the area. Projects for ten rescue centers, located on Chukotka, Andyr, in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Naryan-Mar, Vorkuta, Nadym, Dudinka and Tiksi have already been prepared and construction is planned to be finished before 2015. The first rescue center is to be located in the port of Dudinka and it will start operating from August 2012.
The center in strategic hub for NSR – Murmansk will be ready before the end of 2013 as confirmed by the Russia’s Deputy Minister of Regional Development Aleksander Viktorov at the “Security and Cooperation in the Arctic: New Frontiers” conference recently held in Murmansk.
The map presents all current and future shipping routes available in the Arctic for both cargo and passenger operations. Please, be referred to our Interactive Mapping System to access more information about the Arctic shipping routes and sea ports located in Russia.
Source: Barents Observer