Russia finds oil and gas in British areas of Antarctic

RUSSIA has found vast oil and gas reserves in the Antarctic, much of it in areas claimed by the UK.

The Russian surveys are a prelude to bringing in rigs to exploit the pristine region for fossil fuels, MPs have warned.

Reserves totalling 511bn barrels of oil – 10 times the North Sea’s entire 50-year output – have been reported to Moscow, according to evidence given to the Commons Environment Audit Committee (EAC) last week.

It follows a series of surveys by the Alexander Karpinsky vessel, operated by Rosgeo – the Russian agency charged with finding mineral reserves for commercial exploitation.

Antarctica is meant to be protected by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that bans all mineral or oil developments. The UK’s interests are overseen by the Foreign Office – but it has been accused of ignoring the emerging crisis.

David Rutley, a junior Foreign Office minister, told the EAC last week his department had decided to trust Russian assurances it was just conducting scientific research.

Experts on the region disagree, warning that placing any trust in Russia to stick to its obligations is naive.

Klaus Dodds, a professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway College and an expert in Antarctica, who also gave evidence, said: “The Antarctic Treaty faces renewed challenges not least from bad faith actor Russia and increasingly assertive China.

“Rosgeo has been engaging in seismic surveys and other related surveying work. Russia’s activities need to be understood as a decision to undermine norms associated with seismic survey research, and ultimately a precursor for resource extraction.”

The EAC’s decision to challenge the Foreign Office’s management of the UK’s Antarctic interests followed reports in the Daily Maverick, a South African online journal that discovered Moscow’s activities after its survey ship docked in Cape Town.

Such issues are likely to come to a head in India this month at a meeting for signatories to the Antarctic Treaty.

Most of the British Antarctic Territory is subject to competing claims from Argentina and Chile that are bound to intensify if the evidence from Russia’s seismic surveys is borne out.

The Foreign Office co-funds the British Antarctic Survey, which has five stations and 250 staff, supported by the Royal Navy, and by the research ship RSS David Attenborough – vital not just for science but also for maintaining the UK’s claims to the region.

Prof Alan Hemmings, commander of the British Antarctic Survey station during the 1982 Falklands war, said the growing tensions could destroy the treaty that has protected the frozen continent from development.

Prof Hemmings said: “There will never be a sane time to extract hydrocarbons out of the Antarctic. The thing that will sink us all is any attempt to realise Antarctica’s hydrocarbons.

“And that, as we see, is precisely the focus of Russian activities now.”

Albert Lluberas Bonaba, the executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, said such issues would be discussed at the organisation’s annual conference but would not coent on tensions around Russia’s activities.

The Foreign Office said in a statement: “Russia has repeatedly assured the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting that these activities are for scientific purposes.”

Rosgeo, based in Moscow, did not respond to requests for comment.

Reserves 10 times the size of North Sea output fuel fears Moscow is poised to begin drilling in region