AFP, Moscow :
Tens of degrees below zero during winter and home to endangered species and remote infrastructure-welcome to the Russian Arctic, a new promised land for oil companies despite clear obstacles.
“The Arctic is one of the world’s largest remaining regions of undiscovered conventional oil and natural gas resources,” said Rex Tillerson, chief executive for US giant ExxonMobil, during a major industry conference in Moscow last week.
Tim Dodson, a senior executive at Norwegian group Statoil and who was speaking also at the World Petroleum Congress, said the Arctic “is one of the very few remaining areas with the potential to make huge discoveries”.
More than 20 percent of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves yet to be discovered are situated in the Arctic, according to a 2008 report by government agency the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Such reserves are said to be located largely in Russia, stretching from Western Siberia to the extreme east of the country.
