Efforts to tap into and exert control over oil and other resources in the Arctic region have been a recurring theme during the past several years. In a report last January, CNN explained why:
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.
In fact, I've highlighted the issue in a number of posts here at When Giants Fall, including "Polar Clashes Around the Corner?" "Gearing Up for Something Big," "Canada Is Not Standing Idly By," "Energy Battle Lines Being Drawn," and "A Vision of the Future."
Unlike other topics that seem to garner a burst of media attention and then fade from view, interest in this story remains relatively active, in part because the various countries with designs on the region and what it has to offer keep upping the ante. In "Russia Plans Research to Support Arctic Claim," the Associated Press details the latest development.
Russia is planning extensive research to support its claim to a broad swath of energy-rich territory beneath the Arctic Sea, a top official of the nation's icebreaker fleet said Friday.
Icebreakers will lead research vessels into the Arctic in a series of missions over the next three years to conduct a detailed geological analysis of the seabed, said Andrei Smirnov, deputy director for operations at state-run Atomflot.
Moscow claims a large part of the Arctic seabed as its own, arguing that it is an extension of Russia's continental shelf. In 2007, scientists staked a symbolic claim by dropped a canister containing the Russian flag onto the seabed from a small submarine.
The United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway have also been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to contain as much as a quarter of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas.
The dispute has intensified amid growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice, opening up new shipping lanes and new resource development opportunities.
Smirnov said Russian researchers are currently planning an Arctic mission set to depart next June. It will include a powerful atomic icebreaker and a research ship.
He said similar missions will also take place over 2011-2012.
The researchers will use sophisticated sonic equipment and other gear to study the seabed, Smirnov said.
Moscow first submitted the claim to the Arctic seabed to the United Nations in 2001, but it was rejected for lack of evidence.
Artur Chilingarov, a polar scientist who was recently appointed the Kremlin's point man for Arctic issues and led the flag-planting expedition, said in June that Russia might resubmit the claim in 2013 after collecting more data.
At the time, Chilingarov said Russia's fleet of six nuclear-powered icebreakers gives it an edge in polar exploration. Russia is the only nation that now has an atomic icebreaker fleet, he said.
He said that two giant Soviet-built atomic icebreakers that have been decommissioned are currently undergoing tests for possible extension of their use.
Design work is under way on a new class of atomic icebreakers, and four of them will likely be built, Smirnov said.
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