Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The estimated Arctic oil is probably not significant enough to shift
the geographic pattern of world oil production, which is centred on the
Middle East. But the amount of undiscovered gas is three times greater,
measured on an energy-equivalent basis, than the oil, and is largely
concentrated in Russia or in Russian territorial waters. This would con-
firm the long-term dominance of gas by Russia, which already holds 25
percent of proven gas resources (a higher ratio that Saudi Arabia's 21
percent share of proven oil reserves).
This wealth has not inhibited Russia trying to further increase its share
of potential Arctic hydrocarbons. In 2007 one of its submarines planted
a flag underneath the North Pole, to underline Russia's claim that a large
part of the Arctic seabed, the Lomonosov Ridge, is just an extension of the
Russian continental shelf. Moscow's reason for claiming such an exten-
sion relates to the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty, which came into
The Russian research vessel Akadmik Fyodorov , on sail in the Arctic Ocean. The
ship carries miniature submarines - one of which was used to plant a Russian
flag on the seabed beneath the ice of the North Pole.
 
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