World's Energy

02-26-2009 - Upstream OnLine - The battle for the Arctic's vast reserves of oil and gas can only be decided by international law, Russia and Denmark declared after talks today. Five countries with an Arctic coastline - Russia, the US, Canada, Norway and Denmark through its control of Greenland - have competing claims to the region. Russia said this week it would respond to any moves to militarise the Arctic. It has stepped up its own patrols there. Arguing that the subsea Lomonsov ridge links Siberia with the Arctic, Russia plans to claim a vast section of the seabed - with a estimated total of 13% of the world's undiscovered oil and 30% of undiscovered gas. "All problems in the Arctic, including climate change and reducing ice cover, can successfully be considered and resolved within specially created international organisations such as the Arctic Council," Reuters quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sayin at a news briefing after meeting his Danish counterpart in Moscow. The Arctic Council, set up in 1996, includes the five countries with an Arctic coastline plus the Faroe Islands and Iceland, which both lie just outside the Arctic Circle. Last May the council met in Greenland and agreed to follow the United Nations convention on the Arctic. International law states the five countries with territory inside the Arctic Circle are allowed a 320 kilometre economic zone north of their shores. But there is a tangle of claims beyond the economic zones, as the icecap that once made the Arctic Ocean impenetrable year round shrinks. Scientists claim that it will only take just decades for oil and gas exploration in the region to be possible during the summer months. Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller said at the news briefing his government agreed cooperation was the best way to solve disputes. "International law should be used if there are contradicting claims from different states," he said.