July: Earth's Hottest Month Ever Recorded
According to the latest monthly climate report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), July 2019 was hottest month on record for the planet and Polar sea ice melted to record lows.Much of the planet sweltered in unprecedented heat in July, as temperatures soared to new heights in the hottest month ever recorded. The record warmth also shrank Arctic and Antarctic sea ice to historic lows.The average global temperature in July was 1.71 degrees F above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees…
Green Group Asks Cosco to Avoid HFO in Arctic
Clean Arctic Alliance has sent its second letter to Cosco, in which the NGOs urge the Chinese liner company to make public what fuel types its vessels use in the Arctic.Responding to reports that the 190m-long COSCO-owned cargo vessel Tian’en is due to arrive in the Swedish port of Gävle on August 18, having traversed the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route between the Pacific and the Atlantic, Clean Arctic Alliance Lead Advisor Sian Prior said: “Earlier this year…
VT Halter Wins Historic $746m CG Contract
VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, MS has emerged the victor in one of the most prized and coveted shipbuilding contracts in recent memory, a $746m deal to build the Coast Guard's lead Polar Security Cutter. If two additional ship options are exercised, the total deal could approach $2B.The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, through an Integrated Program Office (IPO), awarded VT Halter Marine Inc., of Pascagoula, Mississippi, a fixed…
Høglund to Supply FGSS for Hurtigruten
Høglund, the marine solutions and system integration company, has been awarded a contract to deliver biogas-ready fuel-gas supply systems (FGSS) for six Hurtigruten passenger ship retrofits.Høglund will work together with HB Hunte Engineering to design and engineer fully customized tank and FGSS solutions for each of the six vessels, optimized to run on both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied biogas (LBG), according to…
"What's Your Arctic Fuel Choice?" Clean Arctic Alliance Asks Cosco
The Clean Arctic Alliance called on Cosco to make public the nature of the fuel that the Chinese cargo vessel Tian’en has used and carried through Arctic waters.Clean Arctic Alliance Lead Advisor Sian Prior was responding to news that the Cosco-owned Tian’en has departed Arctic waters for the French port of Rouen, having travelled via the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route or “Polar Silk Road” along the coast of Russia, between the…
NOCS: Expedition to Investigate Carbon in the Benguela Upwelling
On May 2018 the Royal Research Ship (RRS) Discovery will begin an ambitious science expedition to the South Atlantic to study the role of low oxygen zones in ocean carbon storage. The results of this investigation will help improve understanding of how the ocean’s biology contributes to the long-term storage of carbon in the ocean.The National Oceanography Center (NOC) will lead this expedition to the Benguela upwelling region of the South Atlantic…
ATCM Reaffirm Commitment to Ban on Mining in Antarctic
The 29 countries party to the Antarctic Treaty unanimously agreed today to a resolution at the 39th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) stating their “firm commitment to retain and continue to implement…as a matter of highest priority” the ban on mining activities in the Antarctic, which is part of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (also called the Madrid Protocol). The resolution was initiated by the United States to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1991 signing of the Protocol.
Subsea Innovator Wins SUT Award
Thirty year old napkin sketch became a reality in 2015. The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) has presented its President’s Award to Dr Kjell Olav Stinessen in recognition of his long term services to industry at the Society’s AGM and annual dinner in London. Dr Stinessen has been an engineer for over 50 years and is now a First Chief Engineer at Aker Solutions. In 1985, he drew a sketch on the back of a napkin of his vision for how subsea compression might work in the future.
Burning All Fossil Fuels could Thaw Antarctica, Raise Seas-Study
Burning all the world's fossil fuel reserves could thaw the entire Antarctic ice sheet and push up world sea levels by more than 50 metres (160 feet), over thousands of years, an international study said on Friday. Such a melt, also eliminating the far smaller ice sheet on Greenland, is a worst case of climate change that would inundate cities from New York to Shanghai and change maps of the world with much of the Netherlands, Bangladesh or Florida under water.
NOCS: Free Trials for New Marine Tech
Small to medium sized enterprises and marine technology research institutions can now apply for access to ocean observatories for research, or to test their new product prototypes in the open sea, at no cost. Dr Luisa Cristini, who is managing the project from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), said “It is a wonderful opportunity for organisations to trial their instruments and equipment and to use data from our observatories.
Ocean Warming, Oxygen Loss Putting Marine Life Under Pressure
If you want to live, you need to breathe and muster enough energy to move, find nourishment and reproduce. This basic tenet is just as valid for us human beings as it is for the animals inhabiting our oceans. Unfortunately, most marine animals will find it harder to satisfy these criteria, which are vital to their survival, in the future. That was the key message of a new study recently published in the journal Science, in which…
Polar Science Gets a Boost From EU
The €2 million five-year EU-PolarNet programme brings together 22 of Europe’s internationally-respected multi-disciplinary research institutions to develop and deliver an integrated European polar research programme that is supported by access to first-class operational polar infrastructures. EU-PolarNet will involve stakeholders from the outset to create a suite of research proposals whose scientific outcomes are directly relevant and beneficial to European society and its economy.
Reports on Rosneft Arctic Projects
On December 18, Member of Rosneft Board of Directors, special representative of President of the Russian Federation on international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic Artur Chilingarov made a report "Russia and Norway: Prospects for Cooperation in the Arctic" at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. "Arctic development will help to melt the ice of distrust between Russia and the West," Chilingarov asserted. He cited Rosneft's joint projects as examples of successful Russian-Norwegian cooperation on the Arctic shelf.
Rosneft Restores Meteorological Observations System in Kara Sea
As part of a large-scale summer Arctic research expedition "Kara-Summer - 2014" a meteorological station was installed that meets the latest modern requirements for such equipment, on the island of Uedinenie. Thus, the expedition organized by the "Arctic Research and Development Center" (a joint venture of "Rosneft" and ExxonMobil), with the support of the specialists from the FGBI "Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute" has completed the restoration of the system of meteorological observations in the Kara Sea…
Rosneft and ExxonMobil Start Drilling in the Kara Sea
Rosneft and ExxonMobil joint venture company Karmorneftegaz began drilling of Universitetskaya-1, the Russian Federation's northernmost well using the West Alpha rig. The start of the drilling was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a teleconference with head of Rosneft Igor Sechin and head of ExxonMobil Russia Glenn Waller who were both present in the Kara Sea. Special representative of President of the Russian Federation on international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic…
Kara-Winter-2014 Ice Expedition Successfully Completed
The Kara-Winter-2014 Ice Expedition organized by the Arctic Research and Design Center (a joint venture of Rosneft and ExxonMobil) with expert support from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Federal State Budget Institution was successfully finished. It has become the largest expedition in the Arctic Ocean since the USSR collapse. Within 63 days scientists have been studying least developed areas of three northern seas: the Laptev, Kara, and East-Siberian Seas on board the Yamal Ice-Breaker.
Milestone for Enhanced Safety in Arctic Regions
United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) has just approved global binding regulations intending to enhance safety of navigation in polar areas. This means, inter alia, new requirements for passenger ships. Following several years of intense negotiations, the IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has today approved a new set of regulations on navigation in Arctic waters. Thus, the IMO has today taken a decisive step towards making the so-called Polar Code internationally binding.
Arctic Energy Exploration Efforts Heat Up
Oil and gas—and also mining—are the drivers today propelling Arctic maritime operations and the construction of new vessels able to operate in extreme latitudes. While the gas and oil resources can be recovered in the Arctic or far north and shipped to markets by sea or pipeline, the cost of doing must be balanced upon the global market price for those commodities. Ships and marine structures able to operate in the harsh conditions of the extreme latitudes require special designs and construction techniques.
