According to a U.S. Geological Survey forecast, the Arctic Circle holds about 90 billion barrels of untapped oil, the equivalent of Russia's total known reserves. And that’s not all - the USGS report said that the arctic area has three times as much untapped natural gas as oil.

Despite the fact that the vast quantities of natural gas will be very difficult to tap, the Arctic Circle might become the new and probably last frontier for world energy producers.

The news comes just as Russia is competing with Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States to get its hands on a big piece of the huge energy resources pie in the Arctic area which is becoming more and more accessible due to the global warming process. The area could hold as much as 1,670 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas the USGS report said.

"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what's out there," said USGS Director Mark Myers.

So, the polar bears and other wildlife within the Arctic Circle are in a crisis not only because they might lose their habitat due to the melting ice process, but they could suffer even more when the energy producers will start searching for oil in the region.

USGS Director Mark Myers said he hoped that the new findings would have a say in the future energy decisions. The survey shows that the Arctic Circle holds about 13% of the world's undiscovered oil, 30% of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20% of the undiscovered natural gas liquids. With 651 trillion cubic feet, the West Siberian Basin was home to most of the undiscovered natural gas, followed by the East Barents Basins, with 318 trillion cubic feet, and Arctic Alaska, with 221 trillion cubic feet.

Nearly two months ago, Dignitaries from five countries bordering the Arctic region met in Ilulissat, Greenland, to discuss how their countries will split the region. The representatives of the United States, Russia, Canada Norway and Denmark issued the Illulissat Declaration which utters that the Arctic Ocean "stands at the threshold of significant changes." The declaration was also issued to calm tensions over the probability that global warming will open northern waters to shipping, energy extraction.