US Sanctions Russian LNG2 Companies & more – 7th Nov 2023

Bures from Keswick Village! This is Rorshok Arctic Update from the 7th of November twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Russian tensions with NATO continue to dominate the headlines this week. On Thursday, the 2nd, The US Treasury Department will sanction 130 Russian individuals and companies as retaliation for Russia’s war in Ukraine. One of the major entities on the new list is Novatek, the company developing Liquid Natural Gas Two, or LNG2, a major new natural gas project in far northern Russia. The sanctioning list will feature LNG2 and the suppliers of the technology and materials to build LNG2. The purpose of these sanctions is to stem all future Russian energy production and revenue. On Friday the 3rd, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, responded in defiance, stating, 'You will never defeat Moscow.'

Finland has been increasing its military capabilities since it joined NATO in April twenty twenty-three. On Tuesday, the 31st of October, the country and the United States signed a Bilateral Cooperation Defense Agreement. While the exact nature of the agreement has yet to be publicly released, Finnish broadcaster YLE reported that US troops will be granted access to Finnish military garrisons and bases.

Another Nordic nation in the midst of a military buildup is Norway. The country launched the second new ship designed for Arctic Ocean security on Wednesday, the 1st of November. The third one (and also the last one) is under construction and will be finished next year. The vessel was named KV Bjørnøya. Cecilie Myrseth, The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, said that “The new Coast Guard vessel will strengthen Norway’s ability to maintain overview, preparedness, and control in our waters.”

As the race to control the Arctic Ocean accelerates, the building of icebreaking vessels is paramount to securing regional dominance. On Friday the 3rd, Canadian firm Davie Shipbuilding bought Helsinki Shipyard, maker of icebreaker vessels, from Russian-owned Algador Holdings. The purchase terms remain private, but the Quebec Government contributed 77 million euros, or $80 million US dollars, of financing. The Canadian government is keen to improve its shipbuilding capabilities. Besides, by removing a shipyard from Russian control, the executive weakens Russia’s own Arctic dominance.

Over the sea to Greenland now, where the mining company Amaroq Minerals said on Tuesday, the 31st of October, that the Greenlandic government has granted it two new exploration licenses to search for rare Earth elements. The licenses cover almost 2,000 square kilometers, or almost 800 square miles, with some of this land never previously explored for minerals. Copper and gold are present in this exploration area, but Amaroq holds high hopes it can locate rare elements that are in high demand in the electronics and renewable energy industries, like Dysprosium and Yttrium.

On a similar note, on Monday, the 30th of October, researchers from the Finnish Minerals Group and the Geological Survey of Finland announced they had identified new minerals that contain rare earth elements in Sokli, in far northern Finland. These minerals are called kainosite and gadolinite.

Mineral discoveries in Finland and Greenland could disrupt the Chinese market in rare earth minerals, which has been dominating the global supply for decades.

Greenland looks to build its future not only with mining but through Chinese investment. A Greenlandic delegation returned from China on Monday, the 30th of October, after spending a week promoting the country to Chinese authorities. China has previously rebuffed attempts to make agreements with Greenland, but the delegation was successful for the first time in preparing trade agreements for the export of fish and shellfish from Greenland to China, as well as promoting the country as a tourist destination for Chinese travelers.

Alaskans received some welcome news when, on Wednesday the 1st, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was awarding a grant of $10 million US dollars to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to improve air quality in the Fairbanks region. Since twenty seventeen, the federal agency has awarded over $40 million dollars in funding to improve air quality in Alaska. The funding will be used to replace oil heating appliances with natural gas or propane and expand the availability of natural gas to underserved communities. The aim is to replace wood burning, the main fuel source for many Indigenous communities, with natural gas, which is significantly less harmful to human health.

They weren’t the only remote communities to get a funding boost this week. On Tuesday, the 31st, in the Canadian Arctic region of Nunavik, the Avataq Cultural Institute announced a new five-year plan to spend $36 million Canadian dollars, about $26 million US dollars. The purpose of the funding is to support Inuktitut language work in fifteen Nunavik Inuit communities by creating an Inuktitut Language Authority and developing regional language centers throughout Nunavik. Recall that the Inuit language of Inuktitut, like all Indigenous languages, is facing extinction. Canada’s Indigenous Language Component program and the Makivvik corporation are funding the project.

A new age has finally arrived in Norway and Europe: the space age. On Thursday, the 2nd of November, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway inaugurated the Andøya Spaceport. Located on the island of Andøya within Norway’s Arctic, this is Europe’s first and only operational space launch port for satellites. It even has a dedicated section for the Norwegian Armed Forces to deploy and defend its own space missions. According to Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Andøya Spaceport is ready to become a spaceport for the whole of Europe.

Norway has a long history going back to eighteen ninety-six with space experiments that aren't well known. The Norwegian Space Agency has published a detailed overview of Norway’s achievements since those early days. To read the full piece, follow the link in the show notes.

Since Russia hasn’t got many friends in Europe, the country is making new partners from across the globe. Russia first announced plans to build its own science complex in the abandoned Russian coal mining town of Pyramiden on the Svalbard islands in June. On Tuesday, the 31st of October, Russia’s Consul General Andrei Chemerilo, who was revealed to be a Russian spy working against Norway back in April, said in a speech that Russia is inviting India, Turkey, China, Brazil and Thailand to move their own Arctic research to the Russian base. As Russia seeks to increase its presence in the Arctic, the state will be using research to gain influence across the region.

Back to Greenland, scientists from the Greenland Institute of Nature have discovered a unique type of seal. Still, local Inuit hunters say they’ve been aware of a new seal for some time, and they have been collaborating with scientists from the Greenland Institute. On Friday, the 3rd, the Institute released the new description and the name of the species in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology. Our newest seal species has been named the Kangia seal, named after the Kangia River, where it was discovered, close to the Ilulissat Icefjord. The population is only about 3,000 and has likely been isolated from all other seals for over 100,000 years, eventually causing the evolution into a new species.

From Sunday, the 29th of October, to Saturday, the 4th we’ve celebrated the twenty twenty-three Polar Bear Week. Polar Bears International, a nonprofit organization that works to protect polar bears and their habitat, organized the special annual event. The organizers ran fundraising campaigns and public challenges to reduce carbon footprint, along with a series of live broadcasts of Polar Bears in the town of Churchill in Alaska.

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