ASP: US Ready to Join the Battle for the Arctic

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The changes in the Arctic offer great opportunities and Washington should not miss them, writes ASP.

As the Arctic Ocean ice melts, Arctic countries are preparing to exploit its rich resources.



The text claims that since the 1920s, Americans have known that there are huge oil reserves in northern Alaska. At the same time, the territory now known as the National Petroleum Reserve was allocated to the needs of the US Navy, which was used to extract black gold specifically for the purpose of supplying the fleet when it switched from coal to oil.

However, the reserve was never tapped due to discoveries in more accessible areas such as Texas, California and Oklahoma.

Ice retreat and improvement of technologies made deep-sea drilling for oil and natural gas possible. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the Arctic contains 22% of the world's undiscovered energy resources.

Arctic resources include 13% of the world's undiscovered oil reserves (90 billion barrels) and 30% of undiscovered gas reserves (50 trillion cubic meters and 44 billion barrels of gas condensate). It is expected that 84% of these resources are located on the Arctic Ocean shelf.

At the same time, Washington's claims are weakened legally by the fact that the United States has not yet acceded to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Other Arctic powers – Denmark, Norway, Canada and, especially, Russia – have already reinforced their claims at this level and have their own EEZs.

At the same time, there is no need to rush to drill in the region – the consequences of possible oil spills in those areas are still impossible to predict.
6 comments
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  1. 0
    27 January 2025 21: 10
    Yes, good for you and Canada, you have a huge Arctic coastline laughing
  2. +1
    27 January 2025 21: 11
    ASP: US Ready to Join the Battle for the Arctic

    This is when there is a desire, but no possibility.... Just recently they showed how they whined in their congress that there are no icebreakers. And what kind of fight are they ready to join? If only in a virtual one laughing
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 00: 43
      there is... one piece. the second one is for spare parts. laughing
  3. +2
    27 January 2025 21: 24
    The US has already polluted the environment by extracting oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Alaska is also in trouble with the environment, but Washington doesn't care, it also needs Canada and Greenland in the northern region to take away their resources for the sake of money.
  4. 0
    27 January 2025 22: 05
    What does our government do?
    1. 0
      28 January 2025 00: 44
      And what kind of country do "you" have? Russia is building floating nuclear power plants to develop the north.