Arctic oil rush in the Treasury under ice

Oil firms push into the Arctic, since experts believe huge amounts of oil and gas under the Arctic Ocean. The Russian state company Rosneft and the U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil now want to establish in the Kara Sea oil rigs. But environmentalists warn: no one knows how to fight an oil spill could be under a sheet of ice.


For oil companies, the Arctic is a treasure trove. Unimaginable quantities of oil and gas lie under the Arctic Ocean, experts suggest - to exploit them fires the imagination of politicians and business leaders. More than a fifth of undiscovered reserves of raw materials of the earth to the researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), according to lie in the region around the North Pole.
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The ice takes place due to climate change more and more from the Arctic. Therefore, oil companies are increasingly active in the region around the North Pole.

And yet because the polar ice retreats due to global warming, these riches for the companies are becoming more accessible. The transport of raw materials from the region will be easier if the shipping lanes open through the Northeast Passage in the summer.

The U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil and the Russian state company Rosneft in the future will benefit from - the companies have now agreed to a deal to develop oil and gas exploration in the Arctic Kara Sea and the Black Sea and to jointly promote. It is first of a volume of 3.2 billion euros of the question. In return, Rosneft shares in Exxon-projects in the U.S.. The state-owned company will hold 66.7 percent in the joint venture, Exxon gets the rest
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The agreement also has an impact on Russia: The country could thus gain in the race for the development of the Arctic an edge over the other littoral states. For the international race for oil and gas resources of the North is in full swing. For Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is about one of his favorite projects. Recently, he said, but to be open to dialogue with neighboring countries, but Russia will "hard and consistently defend" its geopolitical interests.

The prime minister was, therefore, not even when signed by the heads of the now co-operating mortgage loan companies, Eduard Chudajnatow and Rex Tillerson, the contract in the Black Sea city of Sochi. Putin spoke of "new horizons", opened up by the partnership.