If there’s any silver lining to this story, it’s this: The Arctic meltdown is creating a potential bounty for oil and gas exploration. Ice loss is allowing unprecedented access to the seabed’s rich – but previously off-limits – natural resources.
And when we say rich, we’re talking really, really rich. Like Warren-Buffet-rich.
The US Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic may hold 1,670 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, 44 billion barrels of recoverable liquefied natural gas, and 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil. Put another way, 30% of the world’s untapped gas and 13% of its undiscovered oil are in the Arctic. According to the Washington, DC, think tank The Woodrow Wilson Center, the world oil and gas industry is expected to invest roughly $100 billion in the Arctic by 2023.
