LOL. Yeah, a Los Vegas casino based oil company. What could possibly go wrong with this investment? Exclusive photo of the Board of Directors:
Posted on 03/26/2008 5:29:48 PM PDT by BGHater
U.S. firm lays claim to nearly all of what it says will be 400 billion barrels
A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said yesterday that new geological data suggest a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels.
That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser.
Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from rapidly melting areas of the central Arctic Ocean, currently beyond the territorial control of Canada, Russia and other polar nations.
The company, which counts retired B.C. senator Edward Lawson among its directors, has filed a claim with the United Nations to act as the sole "development agent" of Arctic seabed oil and gas.
The firm acknowledges that the Arctic's petroleum deposits are the "common heritage of mankind," but has argued that the polar region requires a private "lead manager" to organize a multinational consortium of oil companies to extract undersea resources responsibly and equitably.
The Canadian government has dismissed the company's "alleged claim" over Arctic oil as having "no force in law," but experts in polar issues have raised alarms about the firm's actions, saying they could disrupt efforts to create an orderly regime for exploiting resources and protecting the Arctic environment under international law rather than a marketplace model.
In its latest statement about the polar seabed's "enormous reserve potential" for petroleum deposits, Arctic Oil & Gas cites recent scientific evidence that huge, floating mats of azolla -- a prehistoric fern believed to have covered much of the Arctic Ocean during a planetary hothouse era about 55 million years ago -- decomposed soon after the age of the dinosaurs and exist today as "vast hydrocarbon resources" trapped in layers of rock below the polar ice cap.
Jonathan Bujak, a former geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada who now works as a private consultant in Canada and Britain, is described in the Arctic Oil & Gas statement as confirming the "highly probable validity" of recent research pointing to rock layers "extremely rich" in "hydrocarbon precursors" throughout the Arctic basin.
Mr. Bujak, who previously worked for PetroCanada as a petroleum geologist, co-authored a landmark 2006 study in the journal Nature that first detailed the ancient azolla explosion that shows up today in Arctic seabed core samples.
Neither Mr. Bujak nor Mr. Lawson could be reached for comment yesterday.
Scientists have predicted that global warming could leave the entire Arctic virtually ice-free for months at a time within 20 years. That prospect has hastened a scramble among nations with a polar coast -- namely Canada, Russia, the U.S., Norway and Denmark, which controls Greenland -- to try to strengthen their scientific claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to extended territorial sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean floor.
A report issued last week by the European Union's top two foreign policy officials also highlighted the looming international struggle over Arctic oil deposits.
Authored by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Europe's commissioner for external relations, the study pointed to "potential consequences for international stability and European security interests" as the retreat of Arctic ice makes shipping and oil and gas exploration a reality in the region.
Noting the "rapid melting of the polar ice caps," the report noted that "the increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region."
Is that all? Heh.
Sounds on the 'Up and Up'!!
global warming FTW!
Can we tell Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to go shove it now?
“Filed a claim with the UN?”
Got the OK from GREEN PEACE?
Got the OK from GREEN PEACE?
LOL. Yeah, a Los Vegas casino based oil company. What could possibly go wrong with this investment? Exclusive photo of the Board of Directors:
There is a treaty of some sort between the nations bordering the Artic keeping it neutral. There is a continental shelf provision that Russia started pursuing last year. I wouldn’t go investing tons of money in Las Vegas “Arctic Oil & Gas” just yet.
What does Gore say? You must get the ok from the Keeper of the Earth.
Lol!
Hmmm, same size as the Bakken Shale. Together, that’s 800 BILLION barrels.
Law of the Sea Treaty, here we come. You just know this was filed to stampede folks into accepting this treaty. I do not recognize the U.N. and neither should our government.
As for this jackass corporation, nobody said it would guarantee the U.S. anything. It’s a corporation and it can sell it’s goods anywhere it likes.
If it were not for them we would not have these high energy prices that we have today.
described in the Arctic Oil & Gas statement as confirming the “highly probable validity” of recent research pointing to rock layers “extremely rich” in “hydrocarbon precursors”
Huh!...”highly probable validity” of “hydrocarbon precursors”...translated: maybe, possibly, could have a chance of a pile of dead seaweed.
I suppose there may be a time within the next 20 years when the Arctic may be ice-free for months, but judging from the above, it doesn't appear it will happen this year...
then damnit start drilling....
Funny posturing going on.
Russia sent a submarine to the North Pole sea bed and stuck a flag there, to claim it as Russia’s sole territory.
We in the U.S. pointed out that was done on the Moon’s surface back in 1969, and maybe Russia should reconsider their claim.
Alaska has Arctic Sea shoreline. We shouldn’t need any stinkin’ UN approval to drill for “avolla” derived petroleum.
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