Page 47: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jan/Feb 2013)

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Two Russian icebreakers create a wide

Arctic path for the LNG carrier, , across

Ob River the open Northern Sea Route to deliver

LNG from Russia to Japan.

Conference delineates steady effort to open the Arctic

GAZPROM

The Arctic is the next major region by the 1982 United Nations

Delegates at the opening for the oil & gas industry. Convention on the Law of the Sea,

Arctic Technology

It covers 6% of the Earth’s surface as there is no land mass within the

T

Conference, held and may contain 25% of the world’s ocean. This international treaty undiscovered oil and gas. To date, has been a major driver in the recently in Houston, 174 ? elds have been discovered, exploration and de? nition of the examined the potential holding an estimated 17.2 billion continental shelves underlying of the region to the oil barrels of oil. the frigid waters, encouraging While fear mongers condemn the countries to explore the limits of & gas industry. ‘race’ to grab resources, there is their respective continental margins

Victor Schmidt and no headlong rush to seize acreage to de? ne potential extra-territorial

Nina Rach listened in.

positions. Rather, the industry has claims. Meanwhile, the industry been working steadily since the continues to develop procedures, 1980s in multi-company, infrastructure, and technologies multi-national consortia to to preserve life and perform understand the resource potential work safely in the ice-bound and environmental sensitivities of environment.

the region. The region has been under Eight countries hold territorial steady research, exploration rights in and around the Arctic and development since Alaska’s

Ocean. Activities are governed Prudhoe Bay was opened in the oedigital.com January 2013 | OE 49 oe_ArcticTech.indd 49 03/01/2013 13:40