After four years of poking around in the Arctic Circle, the U.S. Geological Survey found that about 20% of the world’s untapped oil is there beneath the ice. Of course, that ice is melting fast.
The news raises that two most standard war cries around oil deposits: who owns it and will getting at it hurt the Earth’s environment.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the survey’s look at the pole "confirming its potential as the final frontier for energy exploration." There should be no surprise in that. Alaska, northern Russia, and the North Sea all contain massive oil fields no so far from the edge of the Arctic region.
The last few months have taken the debate about oil from whether there is any of it left to what sacrifices governments and environmentalist are willing to make to bring down the price of crude. In the US, there is oil under protected land and off the coasts of big cities and nature preserves. Drilling in those places would disturb the peace between oil companies and the "green" movement which wants to hold out some ground to be untouched forever.
Oil and gas deposits in places like the Arctic raise the very tricky question of who owns the crude. The property under the pole is being claimed by Russia, Denmark and, in some cases, the US.
New-found wealth is rarely discovered without violent fights over who will get the spoils. In the case of oil, the disputes will certainly delay drilling and recovery. All that while, crude prices will likely rise and threaten the global economy with breathtaking inflation.
Whether there is oil left is no longer the question. The nettlesome debate has moved to who will make money and how far they will go to grab the profits.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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