Race to claim High Arctic's oil resources may be a fool's mission

CBC News ^ | Dec. 14, 2013 | Andre Mayer

[rickmichaels]

When asked earlier this week about extending Canada's territorial claims in the Arctic, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was clear about the rationale.

"We are determined to ensure that all Canadians benefit from the tremendous resources that are to be found in Canada's Far North," he said.

But while the federal government is eager to establish its claims to the polar seabed, some Arctic experts believe that Ottawa is putting too much stock in trying to reap the potential riches of such a harsh domain.

"The central Arctic Ocean is exceedingly remote, thousands of kilometres from any port, from any community, it is subject to extremely hostile weather, complete darkness for several months each winter.

"I could go on. But it is probably the most expensive place in the entire world to drill for oil," says Michael Byers, author of Who Owns the Arctic? Understanding Sovereignty Disputes in the North.

Because of all those hurdles, Byers adds, the economic argument for staking Arctic claims "is not a real argument."

Byers is by no means alone in this view, though it is not universal. Other prominent Arctic researchers, such as Rob Huebert at the University of Calgary, say that while we don't have the technology today to extract much energy from the High Arctic, who knows what will be the case a few decades from now.

And it is that longer term view that seems to be propelling Canada in its newly stated intention to lay claim to the North Pole — also being sought by Russia and Denmark — by making a submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Baird also said that Canada is delaying a larger bid for seabed rights in order to collect more data to strengthen this territorial claim.

[3Fingas]

Excuse, us. We have a claim to that oil as well. Hello, Alaska, anyone?

I suppose mac daddy obammy is too busy playing footsie with Reggie Love to make sure our claim to those potential resources is properly represented.

[snoringbear]

I hope either the U.S. Or Canada claims as much as possible. One thing for sure is that if Russia successfully claims it there will be one big environmental mess left in their wake.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

If "global warming" stops then it will be even more difficult to get to these oil reserves.

A lot of this excitement is based on assuming the worst case predictions of the global warming alarmists, i.e. in a few years beautiful women in bikinis will be sunning themselves on white sand beaches north of the Yukon territories.

[Verginius Rufus]

Why does everything have to be about race?

[American in Israel]

The only reason to try and drill for oil off the Artic North Slope is because it was considered too impossible to accomplish at a profit and was therefore made the only legal place to drill by the Amerikan Feral government.

The only logical place to drill for oil is onshore, the better the climate the easier to accomplish safely.

[SunkenCiv]

THanks rickmichaels.

> ...while we don’t have the technology today to extract much energy from the High Arctic, who knows what will be the case a few decades from now. And it is that longer term view that seems to be propelling Canada in its newly stated intention to lay claim to the North Pole...

[Amagi]

Don’t I recall similar claims from years ago made about recovering oil from shale?

[Blue Collar Christian]

All this time I was led to believe the North Pole was in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. This could be a precedent to all kinds of crazy claims, such as China’s recent ocean area...er...acquisition...