TROMSØ, January 28th, 2010:
The newly developed geoportal, ArcticWeb, provides an unprecedented wealth of information on Norwegian Arctic waters and the Norwegian continental shelf. Access to ArcticWeb will now be made available to non-commercial actors for free.

The intention behind ArcticWeb was to collect all information about Norwegian Arctic waters in one portal, but this has now been extended to include the Norwegian continental shelf. Previously, this information was scattered between several different institutions.
– Our aim with ArcticWeb is that professionals through the geoportal shall get access to all public information available in one place. This will make planning processes related to petroleum activities simpler, smoother and better, says project manager Kjell-Are Vassmyr from Acona Wellpro, the company behind the portal along with IT-specialists Kadme og Akvaplan Niva.

Free access
The geoportal ArcticWeb will be an indispensable tool for all commercial bodies with activities on the Norwegian continental soil and in Arctic waters, particularly the petroleum industry and maritime businesses. Access to ArcticWeb will now be granted free of charge to a host of non-commercial organizations, including academic institutions, local authorities and public data owners.
– ArcticWeb will be developed further in the years to come. By opening up access like this, we will receive valuable feedback on issues like usability and information access. In addition, we hope that the portal will enable these organizations to undertake vital research, teaching activities and other scientific work, adds Vassmyr.

Global interest
To date, ArcticWeb covers Norwegian waters, although the interest has been global. The portal was recently presented at a conference in Alaska, and the US has already shown interest. The vision for ArcticWeb is to be able to provide information access over international arctic waters.

For further information:

About ArcticWeb
ArcticWeb is a web-based geoportal developed by Acona Wellpro (www.aconawellpro.com) in collaboration with IT specialists Kadme (www.kadme.com) in Stavanger and Akvaplan Niva (www.akvaplan-niva.no) in Tromsø. The development of ArcticWeb is funded by The Research Council of Norway, Statoil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, ENI Norge, Lundin and BG Group. ArcticWeb enables users to obtain all relevant information about Norwegian waters, presented in multiple formats such as tables, cards, etc.
For further information: www.arcticweb.com