"A 44-year border dispute between Russia and Norway in the icy expanses of the Barents Sea was finally laid to rest Thursday as a new delineation treaty entered force.
The agreement opens up a previously untouched 175,000-square-kilometer area for exploration, estimated to contain up to 6.8 billion tons of oil and gas.
The resolution of political tensions in the so called "gray zone" was the result of years of work by the Russian and Norwegian governments and comes at a time when Arctic nations are increasingly looking to assert sovereignty over the region's abundant offshore mineral resources. The treaty, signed in September 2010, found a geographical mid-point between the demands of both sides.
World Petroleum Council vice president Anatoly Zolutukhin told The Moscow Times that the "gray zone," previously off-limits for surveying or drilling, is "a very prolific area — maybe even more prolific than Shtokman."
operates Shtokman, the enormous gas field holding about 3.9 trillion cubic meters of gas in the Russian half of the Barents Sea, in collaboration with Norway's Statoil and France's Total. However, uncertain long-term demand for gas and technical difficulties have caused repeated postponements, and analysts said the new treaty might be a further delay if it proved to be a catalyst for indirect competition with Shtokman".............READ MORE
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