Petrocan's Arctic Sovereignty

Scramble is on for Arctic oil (The Guardian Weekly) British and US scientists are at loggerheads over a plan to work with oil companies in hunting for the Arctic's fossil fuel reserves. The US Geological Survey (USGS) is lining up a project with BP and Statoil to find oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean, under the auspices of a flagship scientific initiative intended to tackle global warming. But the head of the British Antarctic Survey, which coordinates UK activity at the poles, has said he is "very uncomfortable" with the idea and has questioned its ethical and scientific justification. Tackling climate change and working out how it will affect the Arctic and Antarctica is a central theme of International Polar Year (IPY) - a high-profile project to start early next year that involves thousands of scientists from 60 countries. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet and last September saw the lowest extent of sea ice cover for more than a century. Scientists say the temperature there could rise by a further 4C-7C by 2100, and the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2060. Documents on the IPY website show that BP and Statoil, a Norwegian company, are "significant consortium members" on a USGS proposal to assess "energy resources in the circumarctic area including oil, gas, coalbed methane and methane hydrates". Geologists estimate that a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie under the Arctic, and analysts have predicted a 21st-century goldrush to tap them as the Arctic Ocean's ice cover retreats. Suzanne Weedman of the USGS said: "This is very much a part of what we do. Our responsibility is to assess the undiscovered oil and gas using geological information." She said the plan built on a project called the Arctic Energy Assessment, which is part of its World Energy Project - a global attempt to map untapped hydrocarbon fuel reserves. ExxonMobil, Amoco, Conoco, Texaco and PetroCanada are listed as members. http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/04/petrocans-arctic-sovereignty.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on April 23, 2006]

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