Atle Staalesen

Biggest oil chief comes to Putin, gets support for whopping Arctic project

A deep crisis is shattering the Russian petroleum industry, but Igor Sechin still gets the President's unequivocal support for the development Vostok Oil, the project that is due to bring several hundred million tons of north Siberian oil to international markets via the Northern Sea Route.
May 14, 2020

Amid crisis for Arctic oil, two drilling rigs set course for Barents Sea

Plummeting oil price and declining economies notwithstanding, well drilling is coming up in far northern Norwegian waters. Russian oilmen have stakes in both wells.
May 13, 2020

A record early ice break-up in great river Yenisey tells story about dramatic change

Thousands of tons of river ice are pushing through the Siberian waterway towards the Arctic Ocean almost two weeks earlier that normal.
May 13, 2020

Gazprom's new major offshore Arctic discovery is devoted to 1945 war victory

The field is located in the Kara Sea and believed to hold more than 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
May 11, 2020

In Kola Bay rises the new Lavna coal terminal

A new phase in the construction of the terminal has now begun, says Russian state maritime authorities.
May 08, 2020

Coronavirus does not stagger growth on Northern Sea Route

Shipments on the Russian Arctic shipping route increased by 4,5 percent in the first four months of the year.
May 08, 2020

Norway reopening

The Nordic country is on the way towards normality after almost two months of lockdown.
May 08, 2020

Tycoon in Arctic coal, oil and gas is found dead in Moscow mansion

Dmitry Bosov intended to extract several hundred million tons of coal from the most vulnerable Arctic tundra lands and build a huge LNG terminal on the coast of the Barents Sea.
May 07, 2020

Race against time and the coronavirus in Novatek's Arctic projects

Thousands are infected but the company still forges ahead with construction of the industrial plants and facilities that will play crucial roles in Russian Arctic development.
May 07, 2020

With big spray of disinfectants, Armed Forces fight sneaking new enemy

As the number of Russian soldiers infected with the coronavirus increases rapidly, the Northern Fleet showers its bases in the Kola Peninsula with disinfecting materials.
May 05, 2020

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Atle is journalist and Publisher of the Independent Barents Observer.

In 2002, he founded the Barents Observer. He was editor until 2009 and later worked as journalist and project coordinator for several European cross-border cooperation projects. In late 2015, following a conflict over editorial rights, he re-established the Barents Observer as an independent and non-profit stock company along with the rest of the newspaper crew.  

Atle has a degree in Russian studies from the University of Oslo and studied journalism at the Moscow State University.

atle@thebarentsobserver.com
@atlestaalesen