Oil Giants Eye Arctic Reserves
September 28, 2012
This handout photo taken by Greenpeace on August 25, 2012 shows Greenpeace activists holding a banner in front of the Gazprom 'Prirazlomnaya' oil drilling platform during their protest in the Barents Sea as the Gazprom support boat secures the area.
As oil giant Shell calls a temporary halt to its exploration activities in the Arctic because of concerns over safety, lawmakers in Britain are urging international governments to seek a moratorium on offshore drilling in the region. Environmentalists say an oil spill could cause catastrophic, irreversible damage. But with global energy demands set to rise, some say it’s time to look at such ‘unconventional resources.’
Last winter in the Arctic, the Russian tanker ‘Renda’ carved its way to the remote Alaskan port of Nome.
Not long ago this voyage - made in December and January - would have been impossible. The warming climate means thinner ice. More and more vessels are plying these routes year-round. Many of them are involved in the search for oil and gas. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil beneath the United States' Arctic waters alone.
Oil giants, including state-owned Russian firm Rosneft and Royal Dutch Shell, have already spent billions of dollars prospecting for hydrocarbons.
But Glada Lahn from the policy institute Chatham House, says climate change can create problems as well as opportunities.
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