Case Study → Arctic Oil & Gas (Edexcel A-Level Geography): Revision Notes

Case Study → Arctic Oil & Gas

Context	● Much of the debate centres around whether an area of ocean bed (Lomonosov ridge) is an extension of Russia's continental shelf or not ● Countries that have a right to the stores ○ USA, Russias, Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Russia ■ 3 parties involved have access to Nuclear power (Russia, USA and EU)
Resources	● 30% of world's undiscovered gas ● 13% of oil resources ○ Amounts to 90-100 million barrels of oil (worth billions of dollars)

| Russia trying to
Gain Dominance |
● 2007 • Russians used submarine to place a Russian flag on the seabed at the North
Pole ∴ inflaming tensions
● Since then the number of scientific expeditions to the Arctic has ↑ as countries seek
to have a greater presence in the area
● Both Russia and Canada have created dedicated 'Arctic forces' to protect their
interests
● By 2019, Norway, Canada, USA and UK had all strengthened their Arctic military
capacity and patrols
|

| Rising Tensions | ● Tensions are likely to ↑ further as global warming makes the Arctic increasingly
accessible to shipping for longer periods of the year (melting of permafrost) • Arctic
ice melting more than 10% per decade
○ Oil and mineral exploration becomes easier
● As oil reserves elsewhere run out, Arctic oil will look increasingly tempting
● Theoretically the UN will decide whose claims stand and whose do not
|

| Indigenous
People | ● Russian exploration on land

Impact on indigenous people from oil spills (Rosneft-last spillage = 9000 barrels) = polluted water supplies/fish |

•                                                           Oil and gas in the Arctic*