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The Arctic Circle contains trillions of cubic feet of undiscovered gas. the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its untapped natural gas lie under the Artic seabed. 44 This amount represents around 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 45 By comparison, the united States produces 1.85 billion barrels of oil each year and 19.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 46 According to the National Research Council, shipping lanes could be opened year-around by 2030 as rising temperatures melt the sea ice. 47 Commercial oil activity in the Arctic began in 1920 in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The U.S. followed suit by issuing its first oil exploration lease on Alaska’s North Slope in 1958 and brought in big producers like ConocoPhillips. 48 Oil companies began drilling off Alaskan, Canadian, Norwegian, and Russian coasts in the 1980s. Interest in Greenland has intensified in recent years, especially after a 2007 U.S. Geological Survey assessment of reserves ranked an area of northeastern Greenland as 19th among the world’s 500 biggest oil and gas regions. 49 Originally, oil and gas drilling was limited to the shorelines due to the harsh climate. However, companies pushed further north in search of more resources. In August 2007, the Snohvit natural gas field went online in the Barents Sea, 90 miles from the Norwegian coast. 50 This field, along with other oil and gas developments, has maintained Norway’s standing as one of the globe’s richest nations. Revenues from Snohvit alone are expected to top US$39 billion, or US$8,200 per citizen, over its estimated 25-year life cycle. Similarly, Russia has 16 Melbourne Host Directorate PTY LTD | Office of Media and Design
egun developing the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea (373 miles offshore) with the help of two energy firms: Norway’s Statoil-Hydro and France’s total. 51 Russia has responded to environmental concerns about resource extraction by committing to help set up a public-private partnership, Emercon, to monitor and respond quickly to risks arising from oil and gas production. 52 Environmentalists are naturally worried about Arctic drilling and resource exploitation. Greenpeace International spokesman Mike Townsley said that extracting oil and gas will only lead to more fossil fuels being burned, which will trigger further global warming and melting of ice caps. 53 Furthermore, resource extraction inevitably leads to accidents and spills. Examples abound—from the 1989 Exxon Valdez to the 2006 Deepwater Horizon oil spills. Chris Krenz, an Arctic Project Manager for the Oceana environmental group says that “placing wells, pipelines and vessels in the remote Arctic creates a substantial risk of a catastrophic oil spill, and there is no proven method to clean up an oil spill in the icy conditions often found in the Arctic. 54 New Energy Leases As of 2011, more than 400 oil and gas fields have been discovered north of the Arctic Circle. 55 in February 2008, the U.S. government’s Minerals Management Service approved the extraction of oil and gas from a portion of the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northern coast. Between 2008 and 2012, the government opened up four more sections of the Chuckhi and Beaufort seas to extraction. Former U.S. President George W. Bush stated “Congress should permit exploration in currently restricted areas of northern Alaska, which could produce roughly the equivalent of two decades of imported oil from Saudi Arabia. 56 In June 2008, Canada awarded a US$1.2 billion lease to Britain’s British Petroleum (BP) to develop oil and gas fields in the Beaufort Sea. 57 Greenland has also awarded numerous exploration licenses this year to u.S., Canadian, British, danish, and Swedish companies, and in July 2008 StatoilHydro began mapping the seabed of northeast Greenland. Over-fishing The development of huge factory fishing ships that can stay at sea for months on end has led to severe depletions of fish stocks. 58 Governments around the Arctic region have responded by setting catch quotas and limiting fishing rights of foreign vessels within a country’s 200-mile boundaries. Norway has clamped down on Russian vessels fishing in Norwegian waters. At the same time, ships are moving further north as the ice melts. 59 Shipping Lanes Emerging shipping lanes that are a result of the melting ice caps. In 2007, the Northwest Passage became completely open for the first time due to the recession of Arctic sea ice. This path could serve as a shortcut from the Pacific to the Atlantic, possibly making it a more convenient shortcut than the Strait of Magellan and 17 Melbourne Host Directorate PTY LTD | Office of Media and Design
Page 1 and 2: Disarmament and International Secur
Page 3 and 4: Letters Melbourne Host Directorate
Page 5 and 6: Letter from the Under-Secretary-Gen
Page 7 and 8: Introduction the disarmament and in
Page 9 and 10: The Paracel and Spratly Islands. in
Page 11 and 12: ASEAN is a possible multilateral fo
Page 13 and 14: economically. Sovereignty over the
Page 15: Sea. Russia submitted its claim for
Page 19 and 20: ecommendation. 72 The commission re
Page 21 and 22: Topic Area B: Foreign Military Base
Page 23 and 24: Agreement (SOFA) include clauses th
Page 25 and 26: types of interactions between the a
Page 27 and 28: Economics Impact The presence of th
Page 29 and 30: name of counterterrorism. At the sa
Page 31 and 32: The global military presence of the
Page 33 and 34: A U.S. forward operating base in Af
Page 35 and 36: Central Asia and the Black Sea. At
Page 37 and 38: supportive of U.S. presence. 177 Re
Page 39 and 40: ing to the conference and the time
Page 41 and 42: 47 Gerken, James. “Arctic Climate
Page 43 and 44: N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Dec. 2012. 182

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