Race to claim begins

The Arctic may hold far more oil than previously thought; as much as 90 billion undiscovered barrels according to a new study released today by the US Geological Survey. The new amount, equivalent to nearly 20 years of US foreign oil imports, is worth over $11 trillion dollars at current oil prices. One third of the amount may lie in Alaska alone, according to the study's authors.

The region also holds nearly 1,700 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 27% of known world gas reserves. Counting known deposits already surveyed, total oil and gas deposits in the Arctic are more than 410 billion barrels.

The study, known as CARA -- Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal -- included only those deposits that could be tapped with current technology. Future advances would likely boost the number further. Researchers in Denmark, Greenland, Canada, and Norway contributed data to the study.

Seven other nations have claims for the area, including Norway, Sweden, Canada, and the U.S. Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the nation intends to "defend" its sovereignty in the Arctic, backing up the statement with a plan to divert 8 military patrol ships to the region, along with a new deep-water port.


A color-coded map of undiscovered Arctic oil deposits. Darker areas of green indicate more oil.

link

hmm, would it help halt the increase of the price of gas, or would it result in conflicts...any thoughts?

i thought gas was already going down. cause of MEXICO o_O

What did Mexico do??

As for the Artic that could explain why Russia and Denmark were busy renewing claims in that area.

If Russia takes the oil there will they give the oil they stole from the native Siberians back?

Yeah I didn't think so. Typical whites.

LAWL

Like any other country would do different if they were in Russia's place. The "native Siberians" are no better than Russians.

LOL, yes. Russia is especially indifferent in its treatment of the indigenous people. Cough..Tibet, Uighur, Ainu..cough.

This is a very bad news for Arctic. Russians and Americans will get crazy for oil.

i heard they pegged their oil prices. so it gives off the impression they think thats as high as it will go. therefore people might think it will only go down now. i got it from the news

i heard they found a way to turn taco grease into oil.

what will happen to the polar bears?

They will be sent to special camps where they will be rehabilitated and convinced they are topical animals.

The environment is safer under Russia.

The Russian government and people have become very lethargic/stagnant, they'll never get around to gathering all the resources they have. Russia is home to some of the most pristine and untouched forests and other animal habitats in the world.

There's a huge contrast between them and the Chinese.

A bit too late....for oil to be pumped out from those areas would take about 10 years.
1-2 years, Oil Companies surveying the site.
1-2 years highest bidder do a seismic test and analyse the results.
1-3 years exploratory drilling
1-2 if oil is found planes for platforms and pipelines would be submitted for the official body governing to review.
1 year review period
1-3 oil companies build platforms and pipelines
then oil is pumped out....too late

Vote Republican, let's drill that stuff to our heart's content. Who cares about Caribou, the left must be smashed. The fate of the world depends on this.

lol so simple

While there is no doubt about the measure of Canadian valor, the Canadian Navy is a joke. Any real firepower in the "new deep-water port" will be American. That's the result of military integration. Canada has fewer people than California, spanning the continent in a swath about 250 miles wide hard up against the US border. Canada has a landmass larger than some planets in our system, but is unwilling or unable to defend the northern half of the country without foreign assistance. Canada's borders were established by the British Empire, and continue to exist unchanged by virtue of its alliance with the American Empire.

This is the best post.

Instead of searching for Oil, why the crap aren't these same companies looking for alternative energy? Greedy bastards... Fossil fuels are bound to run out anyway. Green is going to become the new black gold (I hope).

world consumes 85 million barrels of oil/gas a day right now. it will reach 120 million BOE/day in next 25 yrs, according to Oil and Gas Journal. 440,000 million barrels = 10-15 yrs of world consumption.

and


well, 440,000,000,000 == 440,000 million

and 90,000,000,000,000 == 90 billion

so 90 billion barrels should last us about:

90,000,000,000,000 / 440,000,000,000 multiplied by (10 - 15) yrs == 2045.45 to 3068.18 years ???

wow, that's a huge amount of reserve.

I don't think that it is something that individual companies have to decide to do.
It's up to the individual countries/governments to support "green" energy, some of which require fairly large investments. Windmills, for example, have this problem that the wind isn't stable, so in some periods it produces excess of energy, and in other periods too little, depending on the wind. If that energy should be stored for later, it will require new technology and even more investments.

Where I live, windmill energy and other "green" energies are about 15% of the total energy budget. It is difficult to increase that in a dramatic way because of the cost, and the problems with storing the energy. Other altarnative energy sources have similar problems - problems that can be overcome, surely, but it requires a great deal of commitment, especially with regard to a new fuel.

As it is now, alternative energy on a large scale is more expensive than oil and coal.

I'm sure that the oil companies will be there when there's money to make from it. One day they have to, of course.

So. We're gonna screw up some more environment and hope that we'll find some more by the time this runs out. Greaaaat.

I don't know what kind of math you are in, but ...

Given: 85 million barrels of oil/gas day

That's 31 billion a year, so 90B barrel lasts 3 years.

Russian now have taken control of Turkmen (world?) gas
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JG30Ag01.html

They force them to pay taxes, even if they are poor and mainly hunt for a living.