Russia and the Arctic
17 August
Russia’s Arctic ambitions challenged
With rich oil and gas reserves at stake as the Arctic ice thins, US and Canadian ships are teaming up to conduct a seismic survey of the Beaufort seabed north of the Yukon-Alaska border
16 August 2008
Russia leads scramble for Arctic
(The Telegraph) With the polar icecaps melting, and oil prices at record highs, a scramble for the Arctic’s resources is underway that will transform this forgotten backwater. And Russia is leading the charge, as it signalled last year when a submarine sailed two and a half miles beneath the Polar icecap to the north of Spitsbergen and planted a titanium flag on the seabed.
… – while the planting of the titanium flag was a largely symbolic gesture, it signalled Russia’s intention to claim a vast of territory underneath the icecap that amouts to half the Arctic Ocean’s seabed. If they have their way they will tame one of the last true frontiers, making Moscow the master of much of the Earth’s remaining energy supplies. The risk, however, is of lurching into confrontation with the other polar powers, who are only now waking up to what is at stake. The great prize is the 25 per cent of the Earth’s remaining oil and gas which the Arctic is thought to contain.
… Cleo Paskal, an Assistant Fellow (sic) at Chatham House and an expert on how climate change will affect borders, said: “The Russians have a big head start. Their nuclear submarines have been all over the Arctic for decades, they have 16 icebreaking ships to the Americans’ four, they have a lot of experience and a lot of the right gear.
“And they have a lot to gain. Apart from fossil fuels, there are important fisheries that will increasingly move north with global warming. Strategic control of the Arctic is within their reach.”
July 23
Arctic has 90bn barrels of crude
(FT) The Arctic holds as much as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first governmental assessment of the region’s resources.
The report is likely to add impetus to the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, for control of the region.
March 8, 2008
Last Dash North
Russia and the Arctic: The New Great Game
Dr Mark A Smith & Keir Giles
Key Points
*
The belief that the North Pole region could contain large
quantities of oil and gas is one of the major forces driving
Russian policy. The North Pole expedition of July-August 2007 is
laying the ground for submitting a claim to the UN Commission
on the Limits of the Continental Shelf that the Lomonosov Ridge
belongs to Russia.
*
Russia’s claims will be challenged by Canada, the USA and
Denmark. The Arctic region is likely to become a region of
geopolitical competition later in the 21st
century as the ice cap melts.
*
There is a widespread view in Russia that its claim to
Arctic territory is not speculative, but rightful compensation for
territorial losses in Europe.
*
Any foreign interest in the area, government, commercial
or environmental, is seen as hostile intent.
*
Armed action by NATO to contest Russia’s Arctic claims is
discussed as a serious possibility.
*
Reports of the death of the Russian North are greatly
exaggerated, as they take no account of commercial rebirth
based on the oil industry.
*
Russia has a well-developed commercial and transport
infrastructure to take advantage of opportunities offered by the
retreating icecap, in contrast to other littoral states.
*
Naval re-armament and increased military activity mean
the same applies to capacity for military action.
Who possesses the Arctic, possesses the entire world.
At a meeting of the State Council in Murmansk in May 2007, Vladimir Putin proposed setting up a National Arctic Council to coordinate national policy and strengthen Russia’s interests in the Arctic region.
In August 2007 the Regional Development Minister Vladimir Yakovlev issued instructions for the creation of an interdepartmental working group to deal with the development of the Arctic zone.
These moves are indicative of a serious and growing Russian interest in the Arctic.
Vladimir Putin has described the north as Russia’s strategic reserve in the development of its statehood.
Russia’s northern regions are an important source of natural resources. In June 2007, the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy, noted that Russia obtained 90 per cent of her gas, 60 per cent of her oil, more than 90 per cent of her nickel and cobalt, about 60 per cent of her copper and 98 per cent of her platinum metals from her Arctic regions.
8 per cent of the population live in the Russian North, and they produce about 20 per cent of the national income and account for two-thirds of hard currency earnings.
Russian interest in the Arctic became more pronounced in 2007, with the statement
by Russian geologists in June 2007 that the Lomonosov ridge, an underwater shelf in the Arctic Ocean, was linked to the Russian Federation. On 21 June, Duma deputy speaker Artur Chilingarov said that Russia intended to stand up for its lawful rights to the Arctic Ocean shelf.
In July 2007, as part of the Arctic-2007 expedition, a mini-submarine containing two Duma deputies, Artur Chilingarov and Vladimir Gruzdev travelled to the North Pole and placed a titanium Russian flag directly on the pole. Three years earlier, FSB Director Nikolay Patrushev had flown to the North Pole and placed the Russian flag there. The Arctic-2007 expedition’s aim was to make a symbolic claim to the pole and large portions of Arctic territory for Russia. Chilingarov said that “the Arctic is Russian… We must prove the North Pole is an extension of the Russian
coastal shelf.”
On 7 August, he was even more emphatic, stating: “I do not care about what all those foreign public figures are saying about this matter. The Arctic region has always been Russian, since it has been the north, and it will be Russian today. This is Russia, this is the Arctic region, we are together.”
If Russian claims are ever realised, then Russia would control about 460,000 square miles, an area about the size of western Europe, which would be about half of the Arctic seabed. The United States Geological Survey World Petroleum Assessment 2000 estimated that 25 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves could lie under the Arctic Ocean.
