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A dogsled team carries tourists down the frozen Torne River in Jukkasjarvi, above the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, December 24, 2006.
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The Arctic Circle holds an estimated 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil, enough supply to meet current world demand for almost three years, the US Geological Survey forecast on Wednesday.
The government agency also said the area could contain 1,670 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas.
"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what's out there," said USGS Director Mark Myers.
"With this assessment, we're providing the same information to everyone in the world so that the global community can make those difficult decisions," he said.
Frank O'Donnell, president of the nonprofit group Clean Air Watch, said not only do polar bears and other wildlife within the Arctic Circle face losing their habitat due to global warming, they would be hurt by companies searching for oil.
The 90 billion barrels of oil expected to be in the Arctic could meet current world oil demand of 86.4 million barrels a day for almost three years.
The Arctic accounts for about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas and 20 percent of the undiscovered natural gas liquids, the agency said in the first publicly available petroleum resource estimate of the Arctic Circle.
More than half of the undiscovered oil resources are estimated to occur in just three geologic provinces: Arctic Alaska (30 billion barrels), the Amerasia Basin (9.7 billion barrels) and the East Greenland Rift Basins (8.9 billion barrels).
More than 70 percent of the undiscovered natural gas is likely to be in three provinces: the West Siberian Basin (651 Tcf), the East Barents Basins (318 Tcf) and Arctic Alaska (221 Tcf), the USGS said.
Energy companies have already found more than 400 oil and gas fields north of the Arctic Circle.
The discovered fields account for approximately 40 billion barrels of oil, more than 1,100 Tcf of gas and 8.5 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.
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(Agencies)
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美国地质勘探局于本周三发布报告称，目前北极圈内可开采石油储量预计为900亿桶，可满足全球近三年的石油需求量。
另外，据该政府机构介绍，北极圈内的天然气储量为47万亿立方米。
地质勘探局局长马克•梅尔斯说：“在我们就未来如何使用石油和天然气以及如何保护濒危物种、土著居民和地球健康等问题做出决定之前，要知道那里都有些什么。”
“这一估测让全世界的人们都认识到了目前的形势，所以大家可以一起来做那些艰难的决定。”
非赢利组织“洁净空气观察”主席弗兰克•奥•多尼尔说，如今，北极圈内的极地熊和其它野生动物不仅因全球变暖正面临无处栖息的危险，还会因石油企业的疯狂开采而受到威胁。。
北极圈内近900亿桶的石油储量预计可满足全球近三年的需求，目前全球石油的日需求量为8640万桶。
地质勘探局称，目前北极地区未探明的石油储量占全球储量的30%，未探明的天然气储量占30%，液态天然气占20%。这是该机构首次发布有关北极圈内可用油气资源的勘测报告。
报告显示，北极地区超过一半的未探明石油资源主要集中在三个区域，分别是阿拉斯加区（300亿桶）、美亚海盆地区（97亿桶）和东格陵兰断裂盆地区（89亿桶）。
另外，北极圈超过70％的未勘明天然气储量也集中在三个区域，分别是西伯利亚盆地区（18万亿立方米）、东巴伦支海盆地区（9万亿立方米）与阿拉斯加北极区（6.25万亿立方米）。
一些石油开采公司已在北极圈北部地区发现了400多个油气田。
在这些已探明的资源中，石油储量约为400亿桶，天然气储量为31万亿立方米，液态天然气占850亿桶。
（英语点津姗姗编辑）
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