Driven by record melting of the polar ice cap and potential oil riches, Russia this summer asserted its right to land beneath the Arctic Ocean by completing a flag-planting mission at the North Pole seabed. Now, Britain is moving the hunt for oil and gas to the South Pole, planning to lay claim to huge tracts of the Antarctic. The Foreign Office is drawing up a submission to the United Nations for more than one million kilometres of seabed in the south Atlantic. The basis for the claim is that Britain can claim sovereignty under the British Antarctic Territory.
The news of the planned UK claim in Antarctica has raised the spectre of a battle over the southern polar region, which is disputed in part by both Chile and Argentina. Chile staked a claim to a portion of Antarctica with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on October 22 in the face of a May 2009 deadline. Argentina has also signalled its intention to make a claim, which is expected to include territory surrounding the British-owned Falkland Islands.
“The resources are getting tighter and tighter, the technology is getting more sophisticated and the prices are very high and this makes the hunt for oil more attractive,” Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer and Co. in New York, told New Europe on October 23.
The UK has Margaret Thatcher to thank for winning the Falklands War in the early eighties, solidifying Britain’s presence in a region, which is understood to have huge oil reserves under the sea.
Gheit said it is irrelevant whether the UK has a legitimate claim to the region. “I’m not sure about legitimate. There so many illegitimate claims that are being enforced by brute force or arm-twisting or by whatever ... The UK has a foothold into the Falklands Islands and finding a pivot,” he said.
Fadhil Chalabi, executive director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London, cast doubt over the accessibility of future oil reserves in Antarctica. “The question is how much oil this could bring to the world -- new oil,” Chalabi told New Europe on October 23. “The real bulk of oil reserves is in the Gulf, in the Middle East, and I don’t think that finding new oil in the poles is going to change much the geography of oil. You have to keep in mind the amount of potential reserves and the cost ... because bringing oil from the poles is very costly.”
BP said it was too early to consider oil exploration in Antarctica, but the company is open to the possibility. “I’m not aware of any plans at the moment,” BP spokesperson in London, Robert Wine, told New Europe on October 24. “We look at opportunities all around the world and consider them on their merits when they are available and I guess it’s the same in this case. If the opportunity ever arose (in Antarctica),” he said.
However, all claims to the territory are theoretical because it is protected by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which aims to preserve the frozen continent's fragile environment from commercial and military exploitation. Nevertheless, the countries involved want to safeguard their interests by submitting their claims for the energy rich-region.
Environmental campaigners say the hunt for oil in Antarctica poses a threat to the southern polar environment, one of the world's last remaining pristine ecosystems. “It seems unbelievable that a government like the UK that says it’s committed to fighting climate change would want to look for new fossil fuel sources in an area as pristine as the Antarctic. It’s very disappointing,” Ben Stewart, press officer for UK Greenpeace in London, told New Europe on October 24. “In the UK we have more tide, wind and wave power than anywhere else in Europe; we don’t need to go down to the Falklands Islands for energy resources. It exists on our island but we are not exploiting it at the moment and we think that’s what our government should be doing.”
The issue for Greenpeace and environmentalists and indeed anyone that cares about climate change is the extent to which governments are investing time, money and political capital in trying to extract more fossil fuels rather than directing those efforts towards exploiting renewable resources. But the issue of energy, such as the hunt for oil in the South Pole, is highly political. “You cannot separate oil from politics. Everywhere around the world, oil is the centre of gravity now,” Gheit said.
Via: New Europe |by Kostis Geropoulos
The news of the planned UK claim in Antarctica has raised the spectre of a battle over the southern polar region, which is disputed in part by both Chile and Argentina. Chile staked a claim to a portion of Antarctica with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on October 22 in the face of a May 2009 deadline. Argentina has also signalled its intention to make a claim, which is expected to include territory surrounding the British-owned Falkland Islands.
“The resources are getting tighter and tighter, the technology is getting more sophisticated and the prices are very high and this makes the hunt for oil more attractive,” Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer and Co. in New York, told New Europe on October 23.
The UK has Margaret Thatcher to thank for winning the Falklands War in the early eighties, solidifying Britain’s presence in a region, which is understood to have huge oil reserves under the sea.
Gheit said it is irrelevant whether the UK has a legitimate claim to the region. “I’m not sure about legitimate. There so many illegitimate claims that are being enforced by brute force or arm-twisting or by whatever ... The UK has a foothold into the Falklands Islands and finding a pivot,” he said.
Fadhil Chalabi, executive director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London, cast doubt over the accessibility of future oil reserves in Antarctica. “The question is how much oil this could bring to the world -- new oil,” Chalabi told New Europe on October 23. “The real bulk of oil reserves is in the Gulf, in the Middle East, and I don’t think that finding new oil in the poles is going to change much the geography of oil. You have to keep in mind the amount of potential reserves and the cost ... because bringing oil from the poles is very costly.”
BP said it was too early to consider oil exploration in Antarctica, but the company is open to the possibility. “I’m not aware of any plans at the moment,” BP spokesperson in London, Robert Wine, told New Europe on October 24. “We look at opportunities all around the world and consider them on their merits when they are available and I guess it’s the same in this case. If the opportunity ever arose (in Antarctica),” he said.
However, all claims to the territory are theoretical because it is protected by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which aims to preserve the frozen continent's fragile environment from commercial and military exploitation. Nevertheless, the countries involved want to safeguard their interests by submitting their claims for the energy rich-region.
Environmental campaigners say the hunt for oil in Antarctica poses a threat to the southern polar environment, one of the world's last remaining pristine ecosystems. “It seems unbelievable that a government like the UK that says it’s committed to fighting climate change would want to look for new fossil fuel sources in an area as pristine as the Antarctic. It’s very disappointing,” Ben Stewart, press officer for UK Greenpeace in London, told New Europe on October 24. “In the UK we have more tide, wind and wave power than anywhere else in Europe; we don’t need to go down to the Falklands Islands for energy resources. It exists on our island but we are not exploiting it at the moment and we think that’s what our government should be doing.”
The issue for Greenpeace and environmentalists and indeed anyone that cares about climate change is the extent to which governments are investing time, money and political capital in trying to extract more fossil fuels rather than directing those efforts towards exploiting renewable resources. But the issue of energy, such as the hunt for oil in the South Pole, is highly political. “You cannot separate oil from politics. Everywhere around the world, oil is the centre of gravity now,” Gheit said.
Via: New Europe |by Kostis Geropoulos
Tags:
