London—A UK parliamentary committee has backed calls by environmental groups for a ban on Arctic exploration due to concerns over a possible oil spill and growing signs of global warming in the fragile ecosystem. Around 20% of the world’s yet-to-find conventional oil and gas believed to be in the Arctic. The US Geological Survey has estimated that up to 157 billion barrels of oil could be added to proved reserves from new discoveries north of the Arctic Circle. And the US has estimated that 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be discovered in its Arctic waters.
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