Great in the summer: but in winter the midnight sun is replaced by perpetual darkness, making oil exploration very tricky
The Arctic is one of the world’s last regions left to be exploited for oil and gas, and the potential energy reserves are huge. Last week the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg in the high Arctic Norwegian town of Kirkenes, just 15 minutes from the Russian border. Officially their meeting was a celebration of 20 years of regional cooperation, but the energy future of both countries was high on the leaders’ agenda. Here’s my reports from Kirkenes – a town which could be facing a major transformation as international oil giants come knocking.