Resource Exploration and Development

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    Marine Oil and Gas Associated Noise
    (2025)
    PAME initiated a project, led by the United States, United Kingdom, and WWF, focusing on the Management of Arctic Marine Oil and Gas Associated Noise. This project aimed to: identify current practices for reducing or eliminating noise from offshore or nearshore Arctic oil and gas operations, and consider the necessity of specific noise-related guidance for these activities. The project recognized that a better understanding of noise sources and their effects on marine mammals and fish is crucial, particularly concerning the potential impacts on Indigenous Peoples' subsistence activities, thus highlighting the importance of developing avoidance or mitigation strategies. The Management of Arctic Marine Oil and Gas Associated Noise project provides an opportunity for participating Arctic states to share information about measures to mitigate the impact of noise on marine life and related human activities. Mitigation measures were considered across all phases of marine oil and gas operations. While vessels directly involved in marine oil and gas activities for construction, crewing, or icebreaking were included, ships transporting crude oil or gas were not.
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    Arctic Mining - Environmental issues, mitigation and pollution control for marine and coastal mining
    (2025)
    The idea for this project originated within the Arctic Council’s Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) Working Group, where a concern was raised about the disposal of tailings from onshore mining operations onto the seafloor. This led to a broader reflection on the impacts of mining operations on the marine environment. Many Arctic governments support the development of a mineral extraction industry, provided it operates in an environmentally responsible manner and considers socio-economic impacts to local communities. However, the environmental impact of existing and future mining operations is often debated. This report summarizes the results of the multi-year Existing Waste Management Practices and Pollution Control for Marine and Coastal Mining project, developed under the auspices of the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) Working Group.
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    Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines: Environmental Impact Assessments
    (2009)
    As a part of the Oil and Gas Guidelines (2009), Arctic States were asked to submit Environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures to determine the potential impacts of offshore oil and gas exploration, development, transportation and infrastructure on the environment and human communities so as to inform decision-making. Arctic countries use a variety of methods and approaches. Assessments may have a broad scope or be project specific. The responsibility for conducting the EIA or preliminary impact assessments (PEIA) varies from country to country.
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    Circumpolar Marine Workshop
    (1999)
    The Arctic ecosystem is shared by the Arctic countries and by the international community. It is important to engage the key players and gain their co-operation if a unified approach to conservation, protection and sustainable use of the Arctic marine environment and its resources is to be achieved. To that end, representatives of the Arctic countries and international organisations met at a Circumpolar Marine Workshop (CMW) from Nov. 28 – Dec. 2, 1999 in Montreal, Canada to begin a dialogue on their shared marine environment. The goals of the Workshop were to develop practical measures to protect the Arctic marine environment and conserve its biodiversity and to facilitate collaboration among Arctic countries, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders. The objectives were to develop common tools and mechanisms for circumpolar marine management, to discuss barriers and opportunities for marine conservation and an integrated approach to marine management, to identify gaps in the knowledge base and determine ways to address these, to integrate traditional with western scientific knowledge and to develop mechanisms to engage local and indigenous peoples in marine management.
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    RUNARC Project: Safety and Environmental Regime for Russian Offshore Oil and Gas Operations: Feasibility Study
    (1998)
    The RUNARC project was started in February 1997 and produced a Feasibility Study in 1998 whose goal was to analyze, incorporate and make additions to the existing legislative, normative-juridical acts, normative-technical documents, and help to introduce into practice the modern forms of oil- and gas-producing operations on the shelf, and to determine the probability of success of development and implementation of the safety and environmental protection regime that would satisfy the needs of Russia, taking into account international standards, including technical regulations and standards of USA and Norway, as well as acceptance of actions for obtaining the consent of the Russian Government to implement recommendations of the project.