Murmansk Oblast's notification of invitation to tenders for the Murmansk Transport Hub development, was released this week. The total costs of contracts at this stage are 995 million Rubles, of which 463 million Rubles shall be used in 2009.

According to a recent international report, Canada should take another look at its decision to exclude the polar bear from the country’s list of endangered species due to the fact that the loss of the Arctic sea ice has already affected the polar bear population in the region.

The Barents Sea shelf can contain as much as 76 billion barrels of oil equivalent possible technical recoverable, according to the latest estimates made by U.S. Geological Survey.

The goods turnover of the Murmansk Transport Hub will by 2015 total 15 million tons and by 2020 – 84 million tons, figures from the Russian Ministry of Transport reads.

The Russian Accounts Chamber criticizes the Arktikugol coal company in Spitsbergen for having spent 2,17 billion RUB of federal transfers inefficiently.

Sailing from Murmansk on Friday, the nuclear powered icebreaker 50 Years of Victory will head to the North Pole with tourists in its cabins.

Two of the working groups within the joint U.S. – Russian commission established on Monday will have special interest for the cooperation in the Barents Region. The two goups will focus on nuclear energy and safety - and energy and environmental issues.

University of Nevada assistant professor Sudeep Chandra and Joanne Heslop, who is one of Chandra’s students, headed to the Siberian Arctic last week to study how the thawing Pleistocene epoch carbon deposits are affecting climate changes. The two join researchers and students from all over the world who have come together to work on the Polaris Project.

The global recession and lawsuits from environmental groups have slowed the scramble for previously unattainable oil and gas reserves and shipping routes in the Arctic caused by climate change, and have provided a window to resolve complicated ecological and security concerns, specialists say.