Introduction

As the world economy continues to expand, demand for energy and other natural resources is increasing. Reserves of some resources such as oil are becoming more dif?cult to replace. Natural resource industries are increasingly interested in new sources of supply in non-traditional yet politically stable regions such as the Arctic.1 This is occurring at a time when climate change has the potential to make Arctic resources increasingly accessible. The Arctic has the potential to become a major source of commodity wealth in future years