Russia discovers 511 billion barrels of oil in Antarctica, British warn
Hydrocarbon exploitation in the South Pole is prohibited, but London is concerned about Moscow's hidden goals in the region.
Russia is not only interested in the Arctic, where its historical influence has been growing ever more in recent years, but is also looking towards the South Pole. Moscow has thus discovered gigantic hydrocarbon reserves in the Antarctic, representing no less than 511 billion barrels of oil, says the daily The Telegraph. The British were first alarmed by this news because the black gold in question would be found mainly in British Antarctica, a vast uninhabited area of 1.7 million km2 also claimed by Chile and Argentina.
The figures are spectacular: the whole world consumes around 36 billion barrels of oil per year, according to the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 2023, while the Telegraph recalls that these 511 billion barrels represent “10 times the production total North Sea over 50 years.
“Actor in bad faith”
It is therefore a potential El Dorado, except for one essential detail. The 1961 Antarctic Treaty, to which Russia is a party, strictly prohibits the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in this region of the world. At this stage, Moscow denies violating international law: the research carried out by the vessel Alexander Karpinsky, chartered by Rosgeo, the agency in charge of identifying new geological reserves for commercial purposes, would only be “scientific” . But British MPs are concerned about possible circumvention of the treaty, after the Russians sent evidence of their discovery to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) last week.
To date, British Deputy Foreign Minister David Rutley has nevertheless chosen to trust Russian promises, declaring to the said parliamentary committee that “Russia has recently reaffirmed its commitment to the key elements of the treaty” . A blank check that does not convince all the experts. “The Antarctic Treaty faces new challenges, notably from bad faith actor Russia and increasingly assertive China,” Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway College. Rosgeo has engaged in seismic studies and other related survey work. "Russia's activities must be understood as a move to undermine the norms associated with seismic research and, ultimately, as a precursor to further resource extraction."
Following the revelation of the activities of the Russian ship in the British Antarctic by a South African media – the Alexander Karpinsky having docked in Cape Town a month ago – the EAC therefore decided to challenge the management of the Foreign Office in the matter, learned the Telegraph, which recalls that the annual meeting of the signatory states of the Antarctic treaty will be held in India in May.
Behind this discovery ultimately lies the future of this decisive text for the South Pole. If it must be revised in 2048, any State party can also withdraw its signature and no longer be subject to the commitments of the treaty. “There will never be a reasonable time to extract hydrocarbons from Antarctica. Any attempt to exploit [them] will sink us all,” warns Professor Alan Hemmings, commander of the British Antarctic Survey station during the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982, who fears that the activities Russians, but also Chinese, ended up making the treaty obsolete.
North Pole and South Pole
The tensions that we are already observing in the Arctic could therefore find their counterparts on the other side of the globe. “Despite having no territorial claims in Antarctica, Russia, alongside the United States and China, has gradually strengthened its presence in the region in recent years through various scientific campaigns, establishing five research stations in the territory since 1957,” reports Newsweek magazine.
In February 2024, the Russians suspended their financial participation in the Arctic Council, which brings together all the states bordering the region, while Moscow increases the militarization of this region and develops its northern trade route along the Siberian coast , made more easily navigable with global warming and which allows the Russians to bypass Europe to find maritime commercial outlets to Asia.