Antarctica at risk over oil: Bakhtiari

The near pristine environment of Antarctica was at risk of mineral exploration as the world’s oil supplies dwindle, a leading expert said today.

Dr Ali Samsam Bakhtiari told a conference of Antarctic experts in Hobart the polar continent would need greater protection to save it from exploitation by increasingly desperate oil-hungry nations.
Dr Bakhtiari, a former senior adviser for the National Iranian Oil Co in Tehran, has predicted the world’s oil production rate will peak this year at 81 billion barrels per day (bpd) and will decline to roughly 55 million bpd by 2020, pitching oil prices to “stratospheric levels”.

With only 900 billion barrels of the Earth’s oil reserves left to produce, Dr Bakhtiari warned desperate oil-producing nations might set their sights on Antarctica – the “final frontier” for oil exploration – for continued supply.

“I hope it will not happen because that would create enormous difficulties but when you have the enormous price increase that I can foresee … governments and companies will want to find oil anywhere,” he said.

News.com