今日时报:ARCTIC FIELDS HOLD 90BN BARRELS OF OIL AND AS MUCH GAS AS RUSSIA美国：北极拥有900亿桶石油储量
金融时报（7.16)伯南克：美国经济面临“众多困难”
The Arctic holds as much as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US ** scientists have said in the first **al assessment of the region's resources.
The report is likely to add impetus to the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, for control of the region.
The US Geological Survey believes the Arctic holds 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil, while 1,669,000bn cubic feet of natural gas is equivalent to 30 per cent of the world's undiscovered gas reserves.
“The extensive Arctic continental shelves may constitute the geographically largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on earth,” the USGS said.
Last August Russia planted its flag on the seabed 4km under the North Pole raising fears of a rush to grab the Arctic's mineral resources, particularly its oil and gas deposits. Denmark in May called a summit of the five Arctic powers in Ilulissat, Greenland, to try to restrain competition and reiterate the countries' joint commitment to the United Nation's Law of the Sea Convention that governs territorial waters.
美国政府科学家在首份北极资源政府评估中表示，北极地区拥有至多900亿桶的未探明石油储量，以及与俄罗斯已知全部储量相当的未探明天然气储量。
这份报告可能会加剧俄罗斯、美国、丹麦、挪威和加拿大等极地国家对该地区控制权的竞争。
美国地质调查局(US Geological Survey)相信，北极地区拥有全球13%的未探明石油储量，而该地区1669万亿立方英尺的天然气储量相当于全球未探明天然气储量的30%。
美国地质调查局表示：“辽阔的北极大陆架可能构成了最大一块尚未勘探的、可能找到地球上剩余石油的地区。”
去年8月，俄罗斯将国旗插到北极点下4千米的海床上，引起了外界对争抢北极矿产资源的担心，特别是其石油和天然气资源。今年5月，丹麦在格陵兰的伊路利萨特主持北极圈5国峰会，以期约束竞争，重申各国对管理领海事宜的《联合国海洋法公约》(UNCLOS)的联合承诺。
By Carola Hoyos in London
Thursday, July 24, 2008
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