Arctic nations scramble for mineral rights

Many countries, including Russia and the US are considering the Arctic as a viable source of huge energy supplies. In a strange twist of irony, the melting ice caps are making it easier to access the buried minerals deep below the Arctic.

This race for Arctic resources brings up questions regarding ownership of rights to plunder the Arctic Ocean. Some are even voicing fears that the scramble to grab these minerals could cause the face off between the countries bordering the Arctic region. The main Arctic powers Canada and Norway, Denmark and Russia and the US.

According to the US Council on Foreign Relations spokesman Scott Borgerson the potential stakes are enormous.

It is possible that the Arctic region may contain 25% of all the world’s remaining gas and oil reservoirs. The Russian government has already laid claim to 1.191 million square kilometres of Arctic Ocean. Last summer, symbolically planting a Russian flag under the North Pole.

They followed this with their first strategic bomber flights over the region in 25 years. Borgerson stated, “I think you can say planting a flag on the sea bottom and renewing strategic bomber flights is provocative,”

He also added, “I don’t think we’re scrambling. We’re sleepwalking … I think the Russians are scrambling and I think the Norwegians and Canadians and Danes are keenly aware.”

He also considers that the United States should now sign the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which details which parts of the oceans are controlled by different countries.

The US government believes that it is essential for energy corporations to take this opportunity to explore the Arctic region for oil and other deposits. All coastal nations that border the Arctic region already have rights, governing natural resource is that are within 200 nautical miles of their coastline.