Chukchi Sea

The Chukchi Sea (English Chukchi Sea, Russian Чукотское море / Tschukotskoje more) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean.

The Chukchi Sea is located north of the point of contact between the Americas and Asia and extends just north of the Arctic Circle, about 66.5 ° to 80 ° north latitude and from 160 ° to 180 ° west longitude. The area is approximately 582,000 km ²,

In the north of the Chukchi Sea is in the " Arctic Sea " above and is bordered to the northwest on the Wrangel Island and hence to the East Siberian Sea. In the east it abuts Northwest Alaska ( USA) and in the northeast to the Beaufort Sea. To the south it borders the Bering Strait, which leads on to the Bering Sea. The western boundary is the Eastern Siberia ( Russia and Asia); there are the Chukchi Peninsula and the East Siberian Uplands.

Named after the East Siberian people of the Chukchi Sea, with an average depth of only 77 meters, very flat. Only in the period from July to October, it is navigable along the Siberian coast. Numerous animal and bird species are summer visitors here.

Oil drilling

Since 2010, Royal Dutch Shell is active in the area and is working on the exploitation of oil resources in the Arctic Sea. Also, ConocoPhillips and Statoil Chart want to drill in the Chukchi Sea in 2014 and 2015. The relatively expensive production in the Arctic is in competition with the obtained by fracking shale gas and oil in the United States. Among other things Gazprom and its international partners interested in the Russian part of the Chukchi Sea.