Oil in the Arctic

Water AND energy will trigger the future wars on this planet.

Take oil. Recent IEA reports talk of declining production from existing oilfields. Peak oil, where extraction outstrips new discoveries, could be just a five years away. The hunt has been redoubled to find new oil wells. A massive find at Kurdistan could fuel tension between the Iraq government and the autonomous Kurdish regional government.

Equally tension fraught is the building up pitch for the Arctic ocean floor. Almost 30 percent of undiscovered oil is said to be buried there.

There is unexplored oil on the order of 90 billion barrels and 1.67 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, in the Arctic region, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report, but most of the natural gas lies in the Arctic Ocean closest to Russia.

Not only oil, but even gas hydrates, a mixture of ice and methane, another fuel source, have been discovered here. These are found only in high-pressure and cold temperatures.

Various nations have been staking claim and the deadline is 2009. Besides two small basins that are common, the rest is to be divided between Norway, Denmark, Russia, Canada and the US as per the 1982 UN Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS), which the US interestingly has not ratified.

According to this law, up to 230 miles of the ocean floor from the coast is exclusive economic zone of a nation.There is plenty scope for clashes as science, law and national ambitions lock horn. Meanwhile, the questions that come to mind are: can a region like the Arctic Ocean be claimed by nations? Is that fair? Also, what happens to the marine and polar wildlife as nations go drilling the ice?

Of course, exploiting this oil is not going to be easy. Superior technology will be required. The shifting ice pack will make the going rocky for rigs. Huge investments will be needed. Plus, any oil spill cannot be cleaned.

In yet another instance of energy related conflict of interest, is the focus on lithium. Lithium is an energy source that could help power the fuel efficient electric or petrol-electric hybrid vehicles of the future. The world's largest reserves lie in Bolivia at the Salar de Uyuni - in the remote southern Andean plane.

Naturally, Bolivia is not at all sure if opening the reserve to foreign industry will benefit it. We will not repeat the historical experience since the fifteenth century when raw materials exported for the industrialisation of the west that has left us poor, says Bolivia's minister for mining, Luis Alberto Echazu.

Why not make a common resource pool? Much as this goes against capitalistic free market notions, energy has become a life-essential today. Some amount of intervention is not surely bad.

Your comments and ideas are awaited. Help us make this blog a meaningful discussion forum.