The Empire strikes ice: UK broadsheet calls for oil grab in ‘Antarctic wasteland’

A screenshot of the Telegraph article, 'The Antarctic oil bonanza that could save Britain — but we need to get there before Argentina', featuring an illustration of an iceberg made of oil.

By Tiara Walters

27 Mar 2025

It’s either us or Argentina, says a Telegraph report dreaming about a ‘glorious British repurposing’ of the bottom of the Earth. One legal catch with this argument? The icy south has never been Britain’s to lose.

No. Antarctica — that far-flung, frozen desert of extremes — does not belong to any country.

In some ways, that’s the beauty of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

An arms-control pact, it aims to neutralise territorial tensions. It bans mining except for so-called scientific research. And it devotes a continent — inestimable for its natural value and beauty — to peace and science.

The treaty remains among the last great defences of our collective humanity.

But even as Westminster’s ongoing inquiry into the UK’s Antarctic interests received expert evidence of Russia’s self-declared mining ambitions, viewed as a threat to international security and planetary health, The Telegraph published an article challenging London to assume the role of oil aggressor instead.

In his December expert follow-up testimony to the inquiry, Professor Klaus Dodds of Royal Holloway, University of London, warns: “There are very real concerns about Russia’s behaviour in Antarctica. Russia has used the Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition and vessel Alexander Karpinsky, both controlled by Rosgeo (a state geological company), to carry out seismic surveys of regional Antarctic seas.”

Dodds, a polar geopolitics specialist, also recommends that “the UK and allies should demand that Russia reaffirm its commitment to the permanent mining ban and share further information about the future voyages of the Karpinsky”.

Those “very real concerns” relate to the now US-sanctioned seismic survey vessel that has used Cape Town as a launchpad to reach the Southern Ocean since the mining ban entered into force in 1998.

So much so that 29 Antarctic states reaffirmed the mining ban in mid-2023 after Daily Maverick’s October 2021 revelations. (The ban can still be reviewed from 2048.)

Even if Russia signed the dotted line and the Karpinsky remains on the treaty’s shipping schedule for the current research season, this was a laudable, timely initiative.

A reaffirmation gives parties a bit more heft to hold Rosgeo, which has conducted 4.5 million square kilometres in oil and gas surveys in the Southern Ocean, to account.

Yet Moscow, Dodds’s testimony suggests, must reconcile that signature with its mineral explorer’s contradictory words and actions.

Fact check: ‘BAT’ in the belfry

But the legal — if nuanced — paradox of the UK’s so-called British Antarctic Territory (BAT) appears somewhat lost on The Telegraph comment, penned by “Anglofuturist” Tom Ough.

Refusing to recognise or deny territorial claims — so, by “freezing” them — is one way the treaty has avoided war in Antarctica for 66 years. Few, in fact, acknowledge, let alone recognise, London’s claim.

And yet, the reporter continues, “God forbid the government negotiators realise that we haven’t given it away yet.”

The Telegraph comment acknowledges that Britain’s claimed territory overlaps with claims by Argentina and Chile, but the historical facts bear repeating, because apparently lots of folk are confused (for instance, here, here, here and here).

Ergo, you’re sleepy. Super. Sleepy.

You see an upside-down triangle.

You can’t get that geometric interloper out of your mind.

Then the triangle fans out from the South Pole. As the triangle gets bigger and bigger, enormouser and enormouser, it engulfs a chunk of West Antarctica, a geographic region that includes the Weddell Sea below South America.

That triangle represents the counter-claimed territory. Which includes the Weddell Sea. Below South America. In West Antarctica. Got it?

Good. We’ll get back to this bit.

A screenshot of the Telegraph article, 'The Antarctic oil bonanza that could save Britain — but we need to get there before Argentina', featuring an illustration of an iceberg made of oil.

‘A continent almost entirely devoid of life’

Illustrated with an iceberg’s fuel-laden underbelly, The Telegraph’s “oil bonanza” article then trots out some of the geopolitical threats stalking the world stage now.

There’s the new geopolitical black, or old-new black gold — thus, US President Donald Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” second inaugural address.

And then, “God forbid”, there is Argentina and that guy with an itinerant DIY tool.

All of which supposedly bolster the argument to get to Antarctica before Argentina does.

“Under-sea drilling would disrupt the continent’s plentiful marine life,” concedes the reporter, but then confuses everyone by painting a picture of a continent that is unplentiful.

“Environmentalists must accept the following: if resource extraction is to be done anywhere, it should be done on a continent that is almost entirely devoid of life.”

Daily Maverick is reliably informed that plenty biodiversity exists at “centimetre, millimetre and micro scales” on the continent.

We are also told there is a lot of life underneath the ice and more in sea ice itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJV5pau1Tsw

Still, the reporter clings to their point as if defending the last line of the Maginot.

“Last year, Russian crews found that the frigid waters off the territory’s coast, still within the area claimed by Britain, harbour enormous reserves of oil and gas — a hoard 10 times larger than our entire North Sea output over the past half-century,” says the reporter. The claimed evidence? Another Telegraph story.

Will the real ‘reserves’ please stand up?

Here’s how The Telegraph reporter chanced upon those “enormous reserves of oil and gas” in West Antarctica.

In May 2024, Daily Maverick broke the news that Rosgeo was “deeply interested in polar hydrocarbons that may be buried within claimed British Antarctic territory”.

Revealing the mineral explorer’s own reports, we showed that the Karpinsky had, among others, conducted seismic surveys directly below South America at least six times since 2011.

Yes, that’s the area — the very same Weddell Sea counter-claimed by Argentina, Chile and the UK! Below South America.

In West Antarctica.

But here is the flightless midge in the ointment: six seismic surveys do not yet equal confirmed reserves.

Seismic surveys can offer valuable information about the existence of hydrocarbons and, though not definitive, they can help estimate reserves.

But if the Kremlin’s mineral explorer has published such estimates, we have not seen them or found them, even — or maybe especially — when we asked.

And, if you’ve followed our series, you’ll know we’ve also trailed and recorded the Karpinsky’s 25-plus years of exploratory seismic surveys in the Southern Ocean via Cape Town.

Using the South African port city for logistical support, Rosgeo and the Kremlin claimed there were 70 billion tons (500 billion barrels) of hydrocarbons just off … are you ready for this? … East Antarctica.

Look east

Yes. East, not West, Antarctica.

According to Russian state sources, then, it is East Antarctica’s subsea sedimentary basins that contain 70 billion tons of hydrocarbons.

(These are not confirmed reserves with recoverability estimates, but that amount may be equal to “10 times the North Sea’s output”, as a previous Telegraph story opted to frame it.)

In fact, while we’re in East Antarctica, let’s consider that its sedimentary basins are just below South Africa’s Bushveld Igneous Complex.

The African complex holds some of Earth’s richest mineral deposits and neighboured East Antarctica millions of years ago.

Indeed, one such peer-reviewed paper by Rosgeo affiliates, published in 2020 in the Nature-distributed journal Geochemistry International, explores the oil-generating potential of East Antarctic seas.

But this is where we head back in the opposite direction because The Telegraph’s concerns about West Antarctica may not be unfounded.

Read the fine print

Echoing the US’s historic position, Russia agrees not to claim territory as long as the modifiable treaty — which has no expiry date — remains in force.

But something has drawn Rosgeo back to West Antarctica’s Weddell Sea six times since 2011.

And we know it has a lot to do with assessing the “mineral resources of Antarctica” and the “oil and gas potential” of the Weddell Sea.

We know this, because Rosgeo’s Antarctic subsidiary said so at least six times in its 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 field reports.

There may be huge recoverable reserves in West Antarctica’s Weddell Sea.

Or not at all, or something in between.

But the mineral explorer, under the treaty’s information exchange requirements, is obliged to make its West Antarctic data public.

By potentially withholding critical data, it could also be gaining an advantage in possible future claims to resources or territory.

‘All the best with it’

So, why do we remain in the dark about what Rosgeo has documented during those six annual expeditions? The mineral explorer, which previously told us the work is legal scientific research, did not respond to our latest requests for comment.

We also sent detailed questions to Dr Chandrika Nath, executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). An independent adviser to the treaty, the committee declined to respond.

“Thanks for reaching out. SCAR is unable to assist you with your enquiry on this occasion, but I wish you all the best with it.”

If media are taking a bold stand on an issue that is of cross-generational importance, they deserve some credit, even where they aim and falter.

Ough’s article does us a favour by highlighting the inalienable realities weighing upon the southern continent — and why some experts are calling for immediately unchangeable safeguards.

The news writer is, in fact, doing the job that watchdogs and treaty officials — who have yet to table this issue at an annual meeting despite difficult-to-ignore news coverage — are funded to do.

But science-minded reporting refrains from calling for, as Ough puts it, a “glorious British repurposing of the Antarctic wasteland” that “could save Britain”.

To help save all humanity, it reaffirms that 60% of proven hydrocarbon reserves — especially Antarctic oil and gas excluded from that equation — must remain locked away. DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

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