The Canadian Press
July 23, 2008 - 12:32 a.m.

A new reflect suggests the equivalent of 40 billion barrels of oil lie undiscovered underneath the sea ice and frigid waters of North America’s Arctic.

The report through the United States Geological Service has according to the first time put more hard numbers following the energy potential of the North and could add new urgency to the deliberate over control of those resources.

Most of the oil and elastic fluid lies in waters Canada shares with the United States and Denmark and that are subject to boundary disputes.

Most of it also lies offshore, presenting energy companies with tough challenges in bringing it to market.

The survey suggests there is the equivalent of 412 billion barrels of oil throughout the Arctic, most of it off the coast of Russia.

That’s more than twice the 173 billion barrels of oil thought to lie in Alberta’s oilsands.