This is clearly a reversion to old-style Soviet propaganda.

After all, peak oil production has passed, has it not, so there cannot possibly be all these "reserves".

If this is true you have to wonder if Mother Nature has set a comprehension test for the human race. The arctic ice is melting due to excessive burning of fossil fuels so we're exploiting the lack of ice to find more fossil fuels. Of course the reserves may not be so great and they may take a decade or more to develop. If the oil resource is major and easily developed it could make the ice loss permanent. I understand that will bring crucial changes to weather patterns and rainfall in Europe. Let's face it we're addicted to happy motoring consequences be damned.

"Let's face it we're addicted to happy motoring consequences be damned."

(Says Taswegian, who walks everywhere - or rides his horse.) Better pack another hairshirt Taswegian - for all those disappearing species of ice vole.

What? The sea ice in the arctic is receding? Someone had better tell Anthony Watts. According to him, that's BS.

What good news though eh? The future promises to be warmer world full of fertiliser with energy supplies dominated by Russia. Woohooo!

Peter H thanks for the Dorothy Dixer. As it happens I drive my car mainly on modified vegetable oil. I also cook on a wood stove and use solar electricity. However it's clear to me that these options are not practical for most people.

Peak oil is looking like another lie to keep prices high.AGW caused by CO2 looks like being the other.

I read some months ago that Russia is vying Saudi Arabia for oil reserves.When they can initiate and control nuclear fusion,ie energy like the Sun,the elites won't have the energy tool to subjuate us.

There is a sting to this tale which perhaps the Russian government should consider. The consequences of a warming Arctic are as described by Dr Daly, that easier access is provided to hydrocarbon deposits – but it also means the thawing of permafrost, both on land and under the shallow water covering the vast Russian continental shelf.

Minister Iury Tutnev and soon to be President Putin should read the work undertaken by Professor Nataly Shakhova, Dr Igor Semiletov and others. They warn that a consequence of thawing permafrost is the uncontrollable release into the atmosphere of vast quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas over 70 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Shakhova and her colleagues point out that near-surface deposits of methane are so huge and so close to being released because of global warming that they make anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide look puny by comparison. They report that the consequences of methane venting into the atmosphere from the Russian Arctic will be sufficient to produce abrupt climate change.

For those who do not know what this implies, it means, among other things, rapid increase in temperature, sea level rise and an increase in severe climate events – sufficient to threaten our ability to survive as a species.

So, Arctic warming may enable Russia to access new oil deposits enabling us to continue driving inefficient fossil fuelled vehicles a bit longer – but at what price?

Hey! Not to worry. This methane threat won’t affect us for at least 40 or 50 years and in the meantime we can get on with living – and who gives a damn about the problems our grandchildren will face?