Russia finds vast oil and gaz reserves in Antarctica, where a decades-old treaty forbids oil drilling

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00:00 Russia has reportedly found huge oil deposits in Antarctica. This claim was made by the Rosgio oil

00:06 exploration company and it has raised concern among

00:09 environmentalists and also in the British Parliament because the alleged discovery are believed to have been made in

00:15 polar territories claimed by the UK no less. Let's bring in Shirley Sidbon from our news desk. Hello to you, Shirley.

00:23 These environmental aspects of the news, drilling for oil was banned in Antarctica.

00:28 Is there a risk to see this precautionary measure overturned? There's always a risk, although of course, there's this

00:35 1976 treaty that puts a moratorium on the exploration and on the exploitation of

00:44 minerals in Antarctica and Russia is committed to this moratorium and to this treaty.

00:51 But we've seen this in the past in other areas which have used to be protected.

00:55 We've even seen this in Alaska in some areas that were protected where now there is drilling.

01:00 So yes, that's a risk and

01:03 you can think of everything that could be found in Antarctica since it's basically a huge territory with potentially huge oil

01:11 fields never

01:13 exploited before. So yes, of course many countries are looking into, are thinking about it and Russia,

01:19 well, the moratorium bans the exploration, but it allows

01:25 scientific research and it's under that that the Russians have been

01:31 going for years across

01:33 Antarctica and using

01:36 seismic surveys to find out if there is a potential oil field beneath. These images are of Vladimir Putin,

01:44 but not from Antarctica, but from the Arctic Circle where

01:48 Russia is already exploiting various fields. But yes, now the idea is going

01:54 seeing what's underneath in case things change and

01:58 this is allowed in Antarctica as well. And that way, well, people, these exploration companies, oil exploration companies,

02:06 know where the oil fields may be. They can deepen their research and

02:11 maybe be able to exploit this in the future. And this is of course a major risk because we're already extremely concerned.

02:18 There's global warming. It's going very fast,

02:22 you know, in Antarctica. We've seen this as a major threat and there's always so already so difficult to slow down

02:29 warming if you start exploring there and

02:32 you know, it can only make things worse. So of course everybody is concerned about this, all people interested in the environment.

02:38 Yeah, environmental risk, very clear. But for some people that might live far away,

02:41 they might say Antarctica, far-flung part of the world, this doesn't concern me. There's no geopolitical consequences.

02:47 But experts say there are, even with ties to the war in Ukraine. Tell us about that.

02:52 Of course, there are always links. Antarctica may be far away,

02:55 but we've seen this so many times in recent years when we talked about global warming, how everything's interconnected, of course.

03:02 But yeah, there is a geopolitical aspect in this because since the war in Ukraine,

03:09 there's been really a turnaround in the policies

03:13 because, you know, until now there was this idea of all the countries coming together, at least in appearance,

03:20 to work to protect the environment. Well, that is over now. Since the war in Ukraine, there's been growing tension around the

03:27 polar areas for that, well, for exploiting oil and energy and minerals.

03:33 And, you know, in the past, in recent years,

03:37 some countries have tried to expand the areas that are protected in Antarctica and Russia and China have blocked those efforts.

03:45 So yes, there is growing concern around this. And so now, well,

03:49 there's a fear that, you know, the various tensions in the world will also impact the environment and make the fight to

03:57 fight global warming, make it more difficult. It has that impact as well.

04:02 All right, Shirley. Shirley, thank you very much. Shirley Sitzbaum from our news desk.

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