A summerhouse at Rangarvellir, south Iceland, burned to the ground yesterday morning and left a man in hospital. Read the full story

Four Greenpeace protesters, who scaled an oil rig off the coast of Greenland and stopped it drilling for 40 hours, have been deported back to their home countries. The activists, who were arrested on September 2, forced Edinburgh-based oil company Cairn Energy to cease all operations for two days. Read the full story

Cairn Energy has confirmed that it has found gas off the western coast of Greenland. The Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration company made the discovery in the Baffin Bay Basin, 175km from the island of Disko. Read the full story

A new report from Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has estimated that there are nearly NOK 500 billion (USD 90 million) worth of untapped gas and oil resources off Northern Norwegian shores, but not everyone agrees on the maths. Read the full story

The Finnish government last week approved the proposal for the construction of the 1,220 kilometre Nord Stream natural gas pipeline which will be routed across the country’s territorial waters. Read the full story

Methane was found bubbling on the sea bed in the Svalbard Islands, according to the Barents Observer. More than 250 plumes of methane bubbles were discovered by a research team led by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. Temperature records show that the area of the ocean warmed by 1C during the last 30 years.

Svalbard is located in the extreme northern part of the world close to the Arctic Circle. The islands are under Norwegian administration with a small Russian mining town.

See the full article at SikuNews.

(Photo/Svalbard from SikuNews)

StatoilHydro, the gas and oil giant, has found itself in trouble with the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority over excessive CO2 emissions from its Molkoya gas plant along the coast of the Barents Sea. The Authority has ordered StatoilHydro to take care of this violation or face consequences. Read the full story

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by StatoilHydro’s President and CEO Helge Lund and Gazprom’s Management Committee Chairman Alexei Miller stating that the two companies will cooperate in all activities in the northern regions of Norway and Russia. The document will help to diffuse the standoff between the two regional oil giants that has been simmering for several months. Read the full story

Nordic and Eastern European nations hoping to break free of Russia’s dominant position in gas supply were dealt a blow when Norway suspended its USD 1.5 billion Skanled gas pipeline project. Skanled would have delivered gas from the North Sea directly to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and perhaps even Poland, bypassing the Russians, who control the regional gas market. Read the full story

HydroStatoil has made a major gas discovery off the coast of Norway that is getting those in the industry excited. The find was made in the Asterix prospect, 345km west of Sandnessjoen in the Norwegian Sea. Initial estimates suggest the proven recoverable volume of natural gas is around 16 billion cubic metres (100 million barrels oil equivalent). Read the full story