ARCTIC: Russia’s Arctic Shipping Season & more – 1st July 2025

Haluu from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 1st of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The modern landscape of the Arctic is changing, with ships and industry arriving in great numbers in the north. On Monday the 23rd of June, shipping news agency gCaptain reported that the twenty twenty-five shipping season for the Russian Arctic officially began. Russia’s Yamal natural gas project on the north coast has dispatched its first gas carrier of the year to carry natural gas to Asia. Two nuclear icebreakers were sent ahead of the gas carrier to break up the remaining winter ice along the coast, clearing Russia’s northern sea route for what will be another record-breaking shipping year in the Arctic, according to government predictions.

As natural gas and shipping are so important to Russia’s economic ambitions in the north, the country is trying to make these industries more independent. On Wednesday the 26th of June, the Interfax news agency reported that the tanker company Sovcomflot will later this year launch the first Russian-built ice-class gas tanker. If Russia is able to construct its vessels in the future, its shipping industry will no longer be so vulnerable to international sanctions because it won't need to contract foreign companies, signaling a new future for the Russian industrial north.

The increasing number of ships moving through Arctic waters has raised the risk of accidents like fuel spills, which could spell an environmental disaster. The University of Manitoba published a story on Tuesday the 24th of June, saying that it held the first-ever controlled oil spill experiment in the Arctic to prepare for this possibility.

The experiment was a success, with knowledge gained in tracking oil spills, utilizing microbes to break down oil spills, and highlighting the challenges of human work in the north. With the results of this groundbreaking experiment, the team behind it hopes research in preparing to clean up Arctic oil spills will only increase from here.

The threat of oil spills in the north won’t stop the oil industry from expanding though. On Thursday the 26th of June, the Norwegian energy company Equinor announced it is investing over $2 billion US dollars into developing a new extraction site at the Fram South oil and gas field, in northern Norwegian waters. Production is expected to begin in twenty twenty-nine and produce over 100 million barrels of oil.

Equinor calls this another step towards European energy security, as the need to import oil and gas from Russia continues to decline.

Arctic governments have long voiced concerns about balancing economic growth with national security as China increases its interest in the region. However, according to a study by Harvard University, China’s Arctic ambitions have largely failed. On Wednesday the 25th of June, High North News reported on the study revealing that most Chinese-backed projects in the European and North American Arctic have failed. Of around forty investments in energy, mining, and research, only fourteen are currently active, just one in Alaska, and none in Canada or Greenland.

The study attributes the failures to the high costs and logistical challenges of operating in the Arctic. While Western fears have focused on growing Chinese influence in the far north, the report suggests that Beijing’s Arctic footprint remains small.

Alaskan residents haven’t had the time to worry about foreign governments, when their own has been causing so much trouble already. On Wednesday the 25th of June, a coalition of nonprofits, Indigenous tribes, and local governments from across the US, including Alaska, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The complaint asserts that when the federal government cancelled $1.7 billion US dollars worth of environmental justice grants earlier this year, they were acting unlawfully. The grants were intended to ensure that all Americans have access to healthy environments. Most of the terminated grants were aimed at minority or low-income communities.

The suit hopes to restore this funding and allow environmental healing to take place once more.

The US government is rolling back further environmental protections in the Arctic. The Alaskan newspaper, The Alaska Beacon, reported on Wednesday the 25th of June that a new law came into effect the following day regarding how oil and gas workers can treat polar bears.

From the 26th, if a polar bear comes near workers or equipment, they are allowed to drive the bear away using a level of force that is non-lethal but is capable of injuring the animal. Under previous rules, workers could disturb the bear enough to scare it away, but without causing injury. Now, however, endangered polar bears are at risk of being injured if they walk near the US’s expanding Arctic oil and gas industry.

Over the border in Canada, the year-long saga surrounding the Eagle Gold mine in the Yukon is coming to an end. As we’ve covered in previous shows, last year the Arctic mine suffered a catastrophic collapse, releasing hundreds of millions of liters of toxic cyanide solution into the environment, leading to the collapse of the owning company, Victoria Gold.

On Friday the 27th of June, national broadcaster CBC reported that the mine has been put up for sale by PricewaterhouseCoopers, whom the local government contracted for cleanup operations. CBC estimates that the Yukon government has spent around $350 million US dollars in cleanup and repair costs.

Before the incident last year, the mine was valued at around $700 million US dollars, so the government hopes to recoup its spending and maybe even make this year-long saga profitable.

The environmental impacts of mining are of concern in northern Finland. On Monday the 23rd of June, news agency The Barents Observer reported on the development of a mine in the Viiankiaapa protected area. The EU lists Viiankiaapa as both one of the most valuable environmental areas in Europe and a critical mining location.

Sakatti Mining plans to open a copper and nickel mine on the western edge of the reserve but is still awaiting an environmental permit. The Finnish government must soon decide whether to prioritize protecting fragile ecosystems or allowing mining for critical minerals essential to green technologies.

Over in northern Quebec, a geologic saga four billion years in the making has finally been confirmed. On Thursday the 26th, Canadian researchers announced in the journal Science that rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt are the oldest known on Earth. Using two radiometric dating methods, the research team determined that their rock samples are over 4 billion years old. This rock formation was formed during the Hadean era, when our planet was a ball of molten lava. The research team hopes that this finding opens up a new chapter of discovery about the Earth's history.

In legal news, justice has prevailed for a group of Sámi protestors in Norway. On Friday the 27th of June, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled that thirteen Sámi demonstrators who protested the Fosen wind farm in twenty twenty-three had acted lawfully and peacefully, and therefore could not be charged.

The protest took place inside the Energy Ministry after the Norwegian government approved wind turbines on Sámi land without consent. The group staged a thirty-hour sit-in and were forcibly removed by the police.

The court ruled that their actions were protected under human rights law, and it was the police who had acted unlawfully. Indigenous leaders in Scandinavia are hailing the verdict as a major legal victory for Sámi self-determination and cultural rights in Norway’s legal and political system.

For Indigenous people in northern Sweden, a new art initiative is creating space for new voices. On Thursday the 26th of June, the news agency Eye on the Arctic reported that the Aejlies Indigenous Arctic Art Residency has officially launched in the Tärnaby area of Swedish Lapland.

Funded by Canada’s Global Arctic Leadership Initiative, the program invites Indigenous artists from Arctic Canada to submit their applications. Aejlies hopes to provide a platform for native artists to create their pieces, while fostering cultural exchange, collaboration, and healing through art.

To explore the beautiful artworks being created by this unique initiative, take a look at the link in the show notes

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Would you like to join the Rorshok team as the Ocean Update writer?

Just send us an email at info@rorshok.com with “Ocean Writer Position” in the subject, and tell us why you would like to write these updates!

Click on the link in the show notes to check out the job description.

Ilaannilu