An Arctic Play

The United States Geological Services says about one-fourth of the world's undiscovered oil and natural gas underlies the Arctic. Development has run into political opposition in the United States, but not across the Atlantic. In Europe, Norway and Russia are looking at how to exploit the energy underlying their respective Arctic territory.

Ed Crooks at The Financial Times has an interesting piece today on Norway's two-year drilling program. Norway is a huge, experienced player in these ultra-sensitive waters, and wants to parlay its seasoning into partnerships with Russia's Gazprom.

We've seen lots of reporting on Russia's plans to exploit its supergiant Shtokman natural gas field. Now the USGS estimates that a second Russian Arctic region, the Laptev Sea shelf, contains some 9.3 billion barrels of oil and natural gas, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report.

This is supergiant territory. It's surely, for instance, to attract much attention in the respective sides of the peak oil debate.

Photo: QwertyUSA
Rights: Creative Commons