OMV Nor­ge, the Nor­we­gi­an daugh­ter of the inter­na­tio­nal oil- and gas com­pa­ny OMV, plans explo­ra­ti­on dril­lings in the field PL 537, about 196 kilo­me­t­res sou­the­ast of Bear Island, sear­ching for hydro­car­bons. The depth of the Barents Sea in this area is near 400 met­res.

The Barents Sea is bio­lo­gi­cal­ly very pro­duc­ti­ve and eco­lo­gi­cal­ly sen­si­ti­ve. It is high­ly important for lar­ge sea­bird popu­la­ti­ons, mari­ne mammals and the fishing indus­try.

Source: Oilinfo.no

AECO (Arc­tic expe­di­ti­on crui­se ope­ra­tors) has published site-spe­ci­fic gui­de­lines. The­se are inten­ded to sup­port visi­tors at a num­ber of most­ly fre­quent­ly visi­ted site to tre­at the natu­ral and his­to­ri­cal envi­ron­ment careful­ly. AECO mem­ber com­pa­nies, which run most tou­rist ships that tra­vel Spits­ber­gen on a regu­lar basis, have com­mi­t­ed them­sel­ves to the AECO gui­de­lines. All other ships, inclu­ding pri­va­te boats, are invi­ted to fol­low them.

The gui­de­lines can be down­loa­ded from AECO.

As expec­ted, expe­ri­en­ced expe­di­ti­on lea­ders won’t find a lot of new infor­ma­ti­on in the gui­de­lines. Tour­lea­ders with les­ser expe­ri­ence and pri­va­te visi­tors will find them inte­res­t­ing and hel­pful in order to avo­id or mini­mi­ze any impact.

Source: AECO