The area above the Arctic Circle encompasses about 12 million square miles, or roughly 6 percent of the earth's land mass. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that this environment contains close to 90 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, with nearly a third of this resource located under the American Continental Shelf. It's no surprise, then, exploration/drilling interest in the Arctic region is intense. The highest profile action currently is Royal Dutch Shell's activity offshore Alaska in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
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