Canadian sovereignty linked to energy development in the Arctic

INDUSTRY IS ABOUT TO EMBARK SERIOUSLY on explorationand probable development of Canada’s Arctic energyresources. The price of natural gas has recovered from its recent lows and is now on the upswing, with no end in sight. With conventional natural gas production already in decline in the mature Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, no one can predict when and where the price of gas will stabilize. Oil has long passed the $100 psychological barrier and currently sells at nearly $140 a barrel, getting ever closer, in absolute dollars, to levels not reached since the oil shocks of the 1970s. The world’s largest oilfields are in decline, starting with Saudi Arabia’s mammoth Ghawar field, one of many giant oil pools from Mexico, Russia, and the Middle East discovered during the heyday of hydrocarbon exploration in the 1960s and 1970s. Con-ventional supplies are declining as China and India grow at breakneck pace, and our American neighbour shows n