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Arctic’s Oil Could Supply World for Three Years
September 21, 2007 01:03 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
The region may hold about 90 billion barrels of oil, which could meet world demand for a few years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
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It was also predicted that the region could contain 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
“Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what’s out there,” said USGS Director Mark Myers to National Geographic.
Previously, the U.S. Geological Survey had predicted that the area holds up to 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves.
The estimate comes amid increasing competition between nations to claim the region’s resources as global warming makes the area more accessible and creates the possibility that new, lucrative shipping passages between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will open up.
Teams of American, Danish, Canadian and Russian scientists have all converged on the North Pole, each trying to establish its own nation’s claims. And in 2007, Moscow announced that rock samples taken from beneath the Arctic Ocean indicate that the North Pole is part of Russia.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation must establish that its own continental shelf extends beneath an ocean territory before claiming it. All the Russian rock samples prove is that the seabed is most likely a continental shelf.
“Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what’s out there,” said USGS Director Mark Myers to National Geographic.
Previously, the U.S. Geological Survey had predicted that the area holds up to 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves.
The estimate comes amid increasing competition between nations to claim the region’s resources as global warming makes the area more accessible and creates the possibility that new, lucrative shipping passages between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans will open up.
Teams of American, Danish, Canadian and Russian scientists have all converged on the North Pole, each trying to establish its own nation’s claims. And in 2007, Moscow announced that rock samples taken from beneath the Arctic Ocean indicate that the North Pole is part of Russia.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation must establish that its own continental shelf extends beneath an ocean territory before claiming it. All the Russian rock samples prove is that the seabed is most likely a continental shelf.
Headline Link: USGS predicts Arctic holds three years worth of oil
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic Circle holds 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil--enough to supply the world for up to three years--and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Source: Reuters
Background: The cold rush
In May, competition was heating up for Arctic resources as five countries met in Greenland to discuss territorial claims to the Arctic Ocean.
Source: findingDulcinea
The Russian government announced in 2007 that rocks found beneath the Arctic Ocean indicate that the North Pole is a part of Russia. It claimed that the Lomonosov Ridge, an undersea structure which stretches across the Arctic Ocean beneath the pole, is an extension of Siberia.
Source: National Geographic
Reference: The IPCC, the USGS
In its special report entitled "The Regional Impacts of Climate Change," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change explains how the melting Arctic ice will affect the region’s ecology, economy, and navigation.
Source: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The U.S. Geological Survey is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The USGS says that the Arctic region, including the controversial Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, is an “area of high resource potential.”
Source: The U.S. Geological Survey
Related Topics: An ice-free North Pole?
After a drastic polar meltdown last year, climate scientists say that the Arctic region is primed for the previously unimaginable as early as this summer—an ice-free North Pole.
Source: findingDulcinea
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