Volterra Fietta’s Post

Notwithstanding headlines and bylines in various media, I am concerned about what is happening with regard to the ongoing activities of the Russian resource company, Rosgeo and what it does in and around #Antarctic waters. Rosgeo has been described as: "Rosgeo is a Russian multi-industry geological holding company, which offers a full range of geological exploration services: from regional surveys to stratigraphic drilling and subsoil monitoring. The holding company boasts a unique expertise, particularly in marine geology and shelf operations. A total of more than 1,000 fields and deposits have been discovered by the holding’s companies, including major hydrocarbon and solid mineral deposits and fields. Rosgeo is a fully state-owned company." Daily Maverick has been at the forefront at investigating all of the above. One way that all of this could be addressed is asking all consultative parties to embrace wholeheartedly the hortatory Resolution 3 from the 2023 ATCM in Helsinki which asked "Reaffirming ongoing commitment to the [permanent] prohibition on Antarctic mineral resource activities, other than for scientific research". I have added [permanent] to make it clear what should be well understood.

In our second article related to Russia's questionable oil and gas exploration in Antarctica, Tiara Walters of the Daily Maverick reports in detail on the start of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting currently taking place in Kochi, India. #Antarctica #India #Kochi #UK #ATCM46 #geopolitics #Russia #oil #gas #AntarcticTreaty 

Join the BluMetric Team this Fall at any of the below events! We'd love to connect with you 😊! #EnvironmentalSolutions #CleanTech #MissionReadyWater #Military #Government #Commercial #Industrial #Mining #IndustrialHygiene #OccupationalHealthAndSafety

The Alexander Karpinsky, a vessel operated by Rosgeo, the Russian agency in charge of finding mineral reserves for commercial exploitation, has found oil reserves equivalent to about 511 billion barrels in Antarctica, according to the British media The Telegraph. The crude oil has been found around the Antarctic Peninsula, the most accessible area of the frozen continent due to its proximity to the south of Argentina and Chile, which is also a region claimed by the United Kingdom as well as Argentina and Chile. But If anything stops Russia from accessing the reserves, it is the Antarctic Treaty, which prohibits using the continent to extract minerals or use it for commercial exploitation. Countries that travel to Antarctica normally do so for scientific purposes, and rely on their stations they’ve established to develop them. For example, The United States has three year-round facilities which are located on Ross Island (McMurdo Station), at the geographic South Pole (Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station), and on Anvers Island in the Antarctic Peninsula region (Palmer Station).

My latest | The US is officially the world's first country to acknowledge that the #Russian #Antarctic oil and gas seismic vessel, the #AkademikAlexanderKarpinsky, is more than a geology ship. See my Daily Maverick story here: https://lnkd.in/dYFYbG9v On 23 February, marking #AlexeiNavalny's death and two years since Russia's full-scale illegal invasion of Ukraine, the US added the Karpinsky to a rogue's gallery of #energysanctions. #Rosgeo, now also sanctioned, told us the Karpinsky's surveys were old-school #geology, sans #prospecting intent. Yet, Russian state actors have also made bold statements about #Antarctichydrocarbons' perceived value, without outlining what may be recoverable from a frontier shaped by superlatives. When I asked the US mission in South Africa for its formal response to the Karpinsky's #oil and #gas seismic surveys in Antarctica, and the protests they have caused, it sent me this reaction from HQ in DC. “We can confirm this vessel we designated last Friday is owned by a subsidiary of Rosgeo, which is the state-owned oil, gas and mining geological exploration [holding]. The US has targeted Russia’s future energy production to further constrain development of future energy and mining projects abroad,” a US official said. “As part of that we identified this ship, and 13 others, as vessels that various subsidiaries of Rosgeo have an interest in. These designations help with compliance so that industry knows which specific vessels are property of Rosgeo or its subsidiaries and therefore fully blocked.” As defined by a 1988 Antarctic mining pact — abandoned after public protests — “prospecting” aims to identify “areas of mineral resource potential for possible exploration and development”. Thus, according to top governance academia such as Prof Alan Hemmings, even early-stage "prospecting" may be a #mineralresourceactivity outlawed by the #MadridProtocol's #Article7 mining ban, because the protocol forbids “any activity relating to mineral resources, excluding scientific research”. Treaty states, including Russia, reaffirmed these laws at the 45th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in #Helsinki, held in the Finnish capital over May/June 2023. Other experts note that Article 7 allows for scientific research, and thus even risqué geological interpretations. But maybe this is not really a story about a Russian ship amassing Antarctic oil/gas data. Other states have done #Antarcticminerals research. If the risk were slight, why would 42 states have signed a ban that sets a high bar for reversal? This ban does not expire, but perhaps we forget it was the #GeorgeBushSr administration, not Russia, who insisted on a changeable ban from January #2048. I wonder if we're happy to look our children in the eye and say, 'This may be a time bomb we can deal with today. Instead, we'll just give it to you, in 2048, when life gets real.' See the full story here: https://lnkd.in/dYFYbG9v Graphic: Righard Kapp / Daily Maverick

My latest https://lnkd.in/dE9934g4 | If we're to accept that Rosgeo's "identification of #Antarctica's oil and gas potential" is just "science" (see Rosgeo's latest statement: https://lnkd.in/dEGyvpUE), we also accept the following as science. As reported in Daily Maverick: 🧊 Russia's state marine geology institute, a Rosgeo research partner, has a department dedicated to studying the "geology and mineral resources of Antarctica". (Source: VNIIOkeangeologia's website — https://bit.ly/3R3doUm) 🧊 According to Rosgeo's Antarctic subsidiary, the Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition (PMGE), its surveys are also “geopolitical”. This “guarantees Russia’s full participation in any form of possible future development of Antarctic mineral resources”. This is why Russia “receives information on the mineragenic potential” of the continent, and “the oil and gas potential of the seas awashing it”. (Source: PMGE report, 2017 — https://lnkd.in/dRwS_Gb3) 🧊 Antarctica is “a potential reserve for the extraction of mineral raw materials by future generations of humankind”. (Source: PMGE report, 2015 — https://lnkd.in/dTEG3vSY) Rosgeo & co's statements have become more conservative since being under global media scrutiny. Yet, as recently as 2022, they said: “Scientific work was successfully carried out on the geological and geophysical study and assessment of the mineral raw-material potential of the subsoil of the northwestern part of the Weddell Sea.” (Source: PMGE annual report, 2022 — https://lnkd.in/dpqMi9t6) (The report’s definition of success is not easy to grasp — the #ProfessorLogachev, one of Rosgeo's two Antarctic survey vessels, had run aground on the Peninsula side of the #DrakePassage during these operations: https://lnkd.in/dBQxnJkq) Accepting all the above as science may well be a tacit rejection of US sanctions, imposed on the Logachev and Rosgeo's Akademik Alexander Karpinsky in February. Responding to questions about Rosgeo's oil/gas surveys in Antarctica, Washington told Daily Maverick by email that the aim of the sanctions was not scientific, but “… to further constrain development of future energy and mining projects abroad”. (Source: https://lnkd.in/dYFYbG9v) Academics say they have an elegant legal solution to the benefit of all, and it doesn't involve confronting any one state. Will states at India's 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting #ATCM46 pay heed? Read more in my latest.

🔥🌐 My latest | In this week's #Westminster inquiry, UK officials faced questions about Russia's oil and gas "research" ventures in #Antarctica, via the Kremlin’s mineral explorer, Rosgeo. Rosgeo's repeated voyages to the UK-claimed territory, with the stated intention of researching the Weddell Sea's "oil and gas potential", hint at more than scientific endeavours. Labour MP Anna McMorrin's pointed inquiry into the matter aired broader geopolitical implications, echoing concerns raised by leading polar geopolitician Professor Klaus Dodds. Dodds' testimony has highlighted seven pressing challenges, including the potential threat to the permanent ban on mining and its tough restrictions, and perhaps even the integrity of the treaty itself. Daily Maverick's investigative series has uncovered substantial data suggesting Rosgeo's ambitions may extend beyond scientific research. On Wednesday, UK Polar Regions head Jane Rumble, OBE maintained there was no concrete evidence of violations. The audit committee was not yet convinced. #Antarctica #Geopolitics #Westminster https://lnkd.in/dNinGeRD

Announcement of a 'National Security Memorandum (NSM) on United States Policy on the Antarctic Region' However, the declaration that the Antarctic Treaty System is 'prohibiting mining for non-scientific purposes' is not terribly helpful, since it suggests that mining FOR scientific purposes will be fine. Article 7 of the Madrid Protocol expresses the duty: "Any activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research, shall be prohibited" The difficulty we have been facing with Antarctic activities conducted by the Russian Federation is that it argues that this is scientific research, whereas any objective assessment is that it is prospecting. And 'prospecting', 'exploration' and 'development' are precisely what was distinguished as 'mineral resource activities' and separate from scientific research in Article 1 of CRAMRA where all these terms are defined. The devil, as so often, is in the detail. I guess the critical question is how this is expressed in the NSM itself, but the announcement has framed it rather sloppily. https://lnkd.in/gJvuDQaA

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Russia finds vast oil and gas reserves in British Antarctic territory By Jonathan Leake Sat, May 11, 2024 British Antarctic Territory Competing claims over the British Antarctic Territory by Argentina and Chile could intensify in light of Russia's discovery - LPhot Ben Shread Russia has found vast oil and gas reserves in the Antarctic, much of it in areas claimed by the UK. The surveys are a prelude to bringing in drilling rigs to exploit the pristine region for fossil fuels, MPs have warned. Reserves totalling 511bn barrels of oil – about 10 times the North Sea’s entire 50-year output – have been reported to Moscow by Russian research ships, according to evidence given to the Commons Environment Audit Committee (EAC) last week. https://lnkd.in/eZH8pS-T