Russia Claims Vast North Pole Oil

Russia intends to annex a vast 460,000-square-mile chunk of the Artic which would give it control of 10 billion tonnes of oil and gas deposits.

Earlier this week, Russian geologists returned from a mission to assess the Arctic area. The scientists returned from Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater shelf in Russia's remote eastern Arctic Ocean with evidence suggesting the region is directly linked to the North Pole via an underwater shelf.

Under international law, the North Pole is not owned by any one country – instead it belongs to all surrounding countries, each which are limited to a 200-mile economic zone.

Scientific reports in the British media have raised doubts about Russian claims to the area saying Canada could make the same claim to the Lomonosov Ridge.

Russia has the world's largest gas reserves and is the second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia.