Originally published December 1 2005
Global warming exposes the Arctic to entrepreneurs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Stoere discusses the future of the High North, where the effects of global warming have attracted big businesses and where many experts predict Europe, Asia and America will look for oil and gas supplies to combat future shortages.
Climate change - whether manmade or natural - is seen by some as a boon to business in the Arctic region, where adventurous capitalists are desperate to obtain access to resources that are uncovered as the ice retreats.
"For decades, this was a frozen region, literally and politically," says Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Stoere - referring both to the Cold War and to the thawing of the polar ice in the Barents Sea.
Currently, Europe and the US make up for more than half the world's gas and oil consumption, but demand from other countries is rising.
"Energy demand is [also] expected to grow very fast in China and India," adds Norwegian petroleum and energy minister Odd Roger Enoksen, in an interview with the BBC News website.
Last week, the US Senate Energy Committee voted to open for oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - despite fierce protests by environmentalists.
"There have already been discoveries both on the Norwegian and the Russian side," Helge Lund, chief executive of the Norwegian energy giant Statoil, tells the BBC News website.
Winter storms, coming at a time of the year when ship and rig crews operate in virtually perpetual darkness, are set to become even more prevalent than before.
Ship builders - keen to cash in on the boom by making ice strengthened oil and gas tankers, freight ships or ice breakers - say such vessels can cost several million dollars more than conventional bluewater ships.
The search, which focuses on ever "smaller and more difficult pockets" of oil and gas, should secure supplies for decades, believes Tom Botts, vice president in charge of Shell's European exploration and production operations.
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