The Arctic resources race is the competition between global entities for newly available natural resources of the Arctic. Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, five nations have the legal right to exploit the Arctic's natural resources within their exclusive economic zones: Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway, and the United States (though the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty, it considers the treaty to be customary international law and abides by it).

In the early 21st century, controversies about the Arctic region and its resources created greater potential for conflicts between nations that have long had conflicting territorial claims and differing opinions of how to manage the area. The Arctic region is also home to an estimated 400,000 indigenous people. If the ice continues to melt at the current rate, then these indigenous people are at risk of being displaced. The acceleration of ice depletion will contribute to climate change as a whole: melting ice releases methane, ice reflects incoming solar radiation, and without it will cause the ocean to absorb more radiation (albedo effect), heating up the water causing more ocean acidification, and melting ice will cause a rise in sea level.

Background The Arctic consists of multiple sub-regions: Russian Arctic, Canadian Arctic, Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), Northern Alaska (United States), Svalbard (Norway), Iceland, Fennoscandia. In addition to these sub-regions, the Arctic Ocean and its multiple seas (Greenland Sea, Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chuckchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, etc.) make the Arctic a vast region with a variety of natural resources.

Resources

Oil and gas The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that undiscovered oil and gas reserves in the Arctic amount to 22% of the world's total, about 412 billion barrels of oil.Andrew Osborn, Putin's Russia in biggest Arctic military push since Soviet fall, Reuters (January 31, 2017). A Brookings Institution summary reported:

The first offshore oil platform in the Arctic was Prirazlomnaya in the Pechora Sea off Russia, operated by the Russian company Gazprom; it began production in late 2013. Russia jailed 30 Greenpeace activists protesting the platform and seized their ship. The largest Arctic platform in the Arctic is Goliat in the Barents Sea off Norway, co-owned by Eni Norge AS and Statoil; it began production in 2015. Royal Dutch Shell had $7 billion project to extract oil from the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, Polar Pioneer, but abandoned the project in 2015 after determining that it was "not sufficient to warrant further exploration".Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Shell abandons Arctic oil quest after $7 billion bid yields 'disappointing' results , Fuel Fix/Houston Chronicle (September 28, 2015). Contributing to these decision was the record-low price of oil and the high operating costs of operating in a remote region with extreme weather.

Arctic oil production is costly; in October 2015, the break-even point (price required to cover the costs of production, transportation etc.) of known but undeveloped Arctic oil reservoirs was $78.6 per barrel; this was more expensive to produce than all other forms of oil except for oil sands.

Minerals The Arctic has vast deposits of economically valuable mineral resources. Significant deposits of phosphate, bauxite, diamonds, iron ore, and gold are located in the Arctic region.Joel K. Bourne, Jr., In the Arctic's Cold Rush, There Are No Easy Profits, National Geographic (March 2016). Deposits of silver, copper, and zinc also exist in the Arctic.Isaac Arnsdorf, Diamonds to Oil Bring Gold Rush Dreams to Melting Arctic, Bloomberg (April 30, 2014). Resource extraction is extremely difficult. In Greenland, retreating ice caps have revealed deposits of rare-earth metals and other minerals, sparking a race between Europe and China over access to this resource.Elisabeth Rosenthal, Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasures, New York Times (September 18, 2012). While in 2012 Greenland had only one operating mine, more than a hundred new sites were being planned. The Barentsburg coal mine on the Norwegian island of Svalbard is open, but has operated at a loss for many years.

Fish Emerging fisheries are another resource in the Arctic.Deb Riechmann, U.S. lags behind arctic nations in race to stake claims to untapped resources, Associated Press (January 1, 2014). Many marine species have traditional cultural value to Alaska Natives; these marine species are being threatened by climate change.Thorsteinson, L. K., and Love, M. S., eds., 2016, Alaska Arctic marine fish ecology catalog: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5038 (OCS Study, BOEM 2016-048), 768 p., doi:10.3133/sir20165038.

In 2015, the five nations with waters adjacent to the central Arctic High Seas agreed upon "interim measures on control of commercial fishing" in the central Arctic High Seas. A December 2015 meeting of these states, plus an additional five cooperating nations, "reaffirmed that, although commercial fishing in the high seas area of the central Arctic Ocean appears unlikely to occur in the near future, the state of currently available scientific information needs to be improved in order to reduce the substantial uncertainties associated with Arctic fish stocks."Fourth Meeting of Scientific Experts on Fish Stocks in the Central Arctic Ocean, 4th FiSCAO, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In April 2016, representatives of the nations again met to negotiate and discuss commercial fishing in the Arctic high seas.Hannah Hoag, Nations negotiate fishing in Arctic high seas, Arctic Deeply (republished by United Press International (April 28, 2016).

Bioprospecting By 2009, more than 40 companies were engaging in bioprospecting in the Arctic.Hannah Hoag, The cold rush, Nature Biotechnology 27, 690–692 (2009), doi:10.1038/nbt0809-690.

Trade routes Trade routes in the Arctic are debatably one of the most valuable resources. Currently, three shipping passages are in operation: the Northeast Passage (NEP), the Northwest Passage (NWP), and the Transpolar Passage (TPP). In addition, other passages that previously were inaccessible are now becoming accessible due to climate change and sea ice melting. The Arctic Ocean fosters shorter trade routes between 80 percent of the most industrialized nations. The consequences of these shorter trade routes are less fuel consumption, less carbon emissions and faster transportation of goods.

Undiscovered resources The U.S. Geological Survey conducted research on the undiscovered resources north of the Arctic Circle. The research revealed that there are at least 50 million barrels of natural gas and oil underneath the Arctic seabed.Bird, Kenneth J., Charpentier, Ronald R., Gautier, Donald L., Houseknecht, David W., Klett, Timothy R., Pitman, Janet K., Moore, Thomas E., Schenk, Christopher J., Tennyson, Marilyn E. and Wandrey, Craig J., 2008, Circum-Arctic resource appraisal; estimates of undiscovered oil and gas north of the Arctic Circle: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2008-3049, 4 p. [http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3049/].

Tourism Some cruise ships offer visits to the Arctic Ocean.

Stakeholders Under UNCLOS, five nations have exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the Arctic region. These nations have the legal right to exploit the resources within their EEZs.

Russia

In 1915, Russia became the first nation to drill in the Arctic and has continued to drill in the region since. Since oil and natural gas account for a large portion of Russia's federal budget revenue and exports, Russia has been very interested in extracting these resources from the region. Russia's share of the oil reserves in the Arctic Ocean has been estimated to account for half of the undiscovered oil in the region. Furthermore, 20% of Russia's GDP is generated in the Arctic. Russia has also significantly increased its military presence in the Arctic region, creating tension amongst nations. Russia currently has 40 icebreakers, making it the world leader in icebreakers.

In August 2007, in an "openly choreographed publicity stunt" extensively covered by Russian state-controlled television, two Russian submersibles in the Arktika 2007 expedition planted a Russian flag on the sea bottom at the North Pole, in a bid to symbolically bolster Russia's disputed claim to "nearly half of the floor of the Arctic Ocean and potential oil or other resources there". However, no other Arctic nations recognized this stunt as having legal significance.

Canada On December 20, 2016, U.S. president Barack Obama and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau issued a joint statement indefinitely banning drilling in the Arctic, which will be reviewed every five years based on a climate and marine science life-cycle assessment. This ban encompasses most of the U.S. waters and all of the Canadian waters in the Arctic. Canada has a fleet of 15 icebreakers.

Kingdom of Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark has expressed interest in resource exploitation, but has stressed the need to do so in a manner that respects the Arctic's nature and environment. In its Arctic strategy report, Denmark acknowledged the importance of practicing the "highest international standards of safety, health, environment, preparedness and response" when extracting resources in the region. The report also included the nation's intent to "seize the many opportunities in the Arctic to create more growth and development" and acknowledged that it needed to realize the region's economic potential.Kingdom of Denmark Strategy for the Arctic 2011–2020. Denmark has four icebreakers.

Norway

Norway has a history of Arctic drilling, and continues to express interest in it. Drilling in the Norwegian Continental Shelf began in 1966 and has continued to be a huge part of Norway's economic growth. Over the years since drilling began in the region, the industry has created values in excess of NOK 12,000 billion, and in 2012 alone, the petroleum sector accounted for 23 percent of value creation in the country. A BP report declared Norway to be the seventh largest natural gas producer in the world in 2015. It has also been projected that Norwegian gas production will increase substantially in the near future. Norway has also taken advantage of the Arctic tourism opportunities that have just recently been made possible. There are currently many Arctic cruise options to choose from, including one to the North Pole. Norway has two icebreakers.

United States

In November 2016, citing the need for environmental protection, the U.S. Department of the Interior instituted a ban on drilling in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea of the Arctic between 2017 and 2022.Chris D'Angelo, Trump Reportedly Prepping Order To Reverse Arctic Drilling Ban, Huffington Post (April 7, 2016). One month later, in a joint statement with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, President Barack Obama used his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 to extend the protections permanently.Robinson Meyer, Can Trump Reverse Obama's Arctic-Drilling Ban? Probably not, at least without Congress’s help., The Atlantic (December 21, 2016).