Russia, US in tug-of-war over Arctic resources

by 158 | January 2, 2009 at 07:24 am

175 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

This area could become a focus

of dispute between several

countries during this century.

As oil and natural gas supplies

are exhausted elsewhere it is

certain drilling will happen

in the arctic.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 90 billion barrels of oil, 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are recoverable in the frozen region north of the Arctic Circle.

And the fight over who owns those resources may turn out to be the most important territorial dispute of this century. Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland all have a stake in the Arctic's icy real estate.