Getting Closer to Peak Oil

Not.

Russia's new Arctic reserves effectively doubles the nation's reserves according to the country's natural resources minister, I suppose, the counterpart our own Mr Salazar.

According to numerous Russian media reports, addressing a meeting of the sixth media forum of the United Russia Party on 25 September, Russian Natural Resources Minister Iury Trutnev said that the preliminary forecast is that resources in the Russian Arctic shelf are comparable to those in mainland Russia, adding, “Speaking of long-term planning, these reserves could last 100, may be 150 years, but longer is unlikely. Humanity will eventually have to look for new energy anyway. Recently, we completed 40-year talks with Norway, delineated the gray zone, and now obtained another 5 billion tons of fuel equivalent there.”

Trutnev’s new Arctic reserve claims are buttressed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) 2008 survey, which estimated that 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 1.668 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas lie beneath the Arctic’s waters and ice, representing 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil. Strong oil prices, more advanced offshore equipment and receding sea ice are leading to a growing interest in the Arctic.

This is quite an incredible story, and folks should go to the link for the "rest of the story."

Again, this is not just the Russians saying this, but corroboration by the USGS suggests that it is very accurate.

And while our own Mr Salazar is tweaking regulations to make it more difficult to go after our own resources, the Russians will be constructing three new nuclear and three new diesel-electric icebreakers to go after their Arctic resources.  Constructing thes icebreakers would employ thousands of union workers if our administration had strategic vision and pro-growth idealism.

And, for investors, this nuggest embedded in the story:

Whether of not the Russians have either the expertise or the necessary cash to exploit the region’s reserves is another matter, as Arctic oil and natural gas exploration is more technically and physically challenging than for any other environment. However, Putin added that Rosneft has a long strategic cooperation agreement with ExxonMobil, and no doubt there will be other international energy companies willing to brave Russia’s tortuous bureaucratic maze for a piece of the action.

A big "thank you" to a reader for sending me the link.