St Petersburg, May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- On 3rd - 5th July 2012, a selection of the nation's most influential oil and gas companies will congregate at the Park Inn Pribaltiyskaya

Russia’s prime minister said Thursday that the Arctic Circle must remain a “zone of peace” as Russia and its polar neighbors rush to stake their claims on the region’s energy-rich seabed.

By Jad Mouawad The race for petroleum resources above the Arctic Circle is likely to speed up in coming years, as the polar ice cap melts and access to oil and gas reserves in many other places around the world becomes more challenging.

WASHINGTON _ An estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered but technically recoverable oil _ three years of world consumption _ lie north of the Arctic Circle, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Wednesday.

By Jill Neill IT was known as the tin snail - but