Some Arctic Events
1: Novaya Zemlya, of many once thought of as the most remote place on earth was under the cold war used as a Soviet nuclear test ground and waste dump.At this location a nuclear reactor from icebreaker "Lenin" was dumped 1967
2: Here the "Tsar bomba" was detonated over Novaya Zemlya in 1961, the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever blown off
3: In August 2011 the Russian supertanker "Vladimir Tikhonov" carrying gas condensate and escorted by worlds two most powerful nuclear icebreakers "Yamal" and "50 Let Pobedy" for the first time sailed through the north-east passage, from Murmansk to the Bering Strait with destination Thailand
4: In Autumn 2010 Norway and Russia settled on a border treaty in the Barents sea
Yellow dots: Natural gas fields (Skrugard, Shtokman, Prirazlomnoe, Kara Sea) planned to be productive within the next 10 years except Kara Sea fields
In August 2011 the Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borten Moe announced "The petrol adventure has just started" after recent Arctic hydrocarbon findings, and at a international August meeting in Oslo attended by 1400 offshore executives talks were about estimates of 650 billion barrels of Arctic hydrocarbon still undiscovered and expectations of a 30 billion dollar annual increase in Arctic petrol investments the coming years, before escalating even further.At the meeting the worldwide demand for natural gas was thought to increase by 50% within the next twenty years, mainly from countries outside OECD.Statoils CEO Helge Lund in an interview with Financial Times at the same time said development of arctic projects not was possible ten to fifteen years back.And finally Aug. 30,2011 Exxon Mobil and Russian oil company Rosneft with Vladimir Putin present signed an Arctic exploration multi billion dollar agreement.(EDIT Sept. 5,2011:Link to FT Helge Lund interview expired)
Thanks to Matt Probert for the 1936 Arctic region map - Sept. 3,2011