As Arctic ice melts, race for oil begins

ALL FOR OIL: The current centre of activity in this great Arctic Gold Rush is the Barents Sea.

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Rajdeep Sardesai

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Keywords: Barents Sea, Gas Reserve

The Arctic: When talking about climate change and global efforts to 'go green', it's natural that the Arctic is part of the discussion.

The region is home to some untapped oil and gas reserves, but they may not remain that way for long.

The Artic is a vast ocean of ice. It is barren and also beautiful even unforgiving and unforgettable.

And today it is very much under threat.

The vast expanse of open water is a prime example of climate change. The fjord used to be always frozen in the winter but for the last three winters there hasn't been any sea ice here.

If the Arctic is the barometer, which measures the earth's health, these symptoms point to a very sick planet.

But ironically the great melt is likely to yield a wealth of untapped resources. For decades people have been plundering the Arctic, but it is the race for oil and gas resources that is now causing concern.

The current centre of activity in this great Arctic Gold Rush is the Barents Sea off the coast of Russia where experts say there could be as much as the equivalent of half a trillion barrels of oil.

Some people talk about a quarter of oil and gas to be discovered in the world in the coming decades might be found in the Arctic basin.

Drilling for black gold can be a dirty business. So it's no surprise the Norwegian government is monitoring the situation closely.

All countries that would like to look for oil and gas in this area should respect the international law. Secondly they should obey the strict environmental guidelines and restrictions.

It is the potential for environmental catastrophe in this untapped wilderness that is concentrating minds.

There will never be a 100 per cent guarantee but the history of more than 30 years of oil and gas activity in the North Sea, in the Norwegian Sea and also now for almost 30 years in the Barents Sea is that as long as we obey very strict environmental and safety standards we can do it with very few accidents and very little spillage.

At the moment it's the lack of people and industry that make this environment so striking.

But with oil prices rising so rapidly, the race for new reserves is on. And if or more likely, when, the search begins in earnest, this vast beauty could become a very cold, dim and distant memory.