Sanctions against Russia for Drilling Oil - Essay Example

Sanctions against Russia on Drilling Oil Piskarev, Alexey and Mikhail, Shkatov. Energy Potential of the Russian Arctic Seas:Choice of Development Strategy. Burlington: Elsevier Science, 2012. Print. Andrew Roth is the editor of the article titled “Energy Potential of the Russian Arctic Seas: Choice of Development Strategy” published in the New York Times and reported it from Moscow. James Kanter also contributed in reporting. The article was edited on July 30, 2013. United States and European countries imposed sanctions against Russia in drilling new oil resources. Obama declared that he had no intention of starting the Cold War, but in case Russia resists over the sanctions it can happen where they are more equipped. The sanctions involved bans of transferring shale technology to Ukraine from any other country, which can assist them in drilling new oil and shale resources from the Arctic. China had intended to transfer the technology, but U.S and European countries banned. The main aim was to protect the extinction of oil resources, as well as environmental conservation. Sanctions are the tools applied by international organizations, or states to convince a group of governments or specific government to alter their policy by restricting investment, trade or other commercial activities. There are two types of sanctions including trade and economic sanctions. Trade sanctions particularly involve putting import quotas in a country that is not enduring with the rules of trade in the international agreement. Economic sanctions are only meant to segregate the target such as trade embargoes, bans on technology, or restrictions on travel. According to the Roth’s argument towards the sanction concerning bans on transferring shale technology to Russia, he has used ethos, logos and pathos in the article, but pathos are not analyzed well because there have been no enough claims offered to support the argument. Discussion The oil wells are planned to be drilled in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in Alaska. The Shell seek permit to drill other wells, but it is not essential because the previous drills caused environmental damage and harm to the economy as evidenced by the Deepwater Horizon that spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. The impact illustrates the economic and environmental dangers of drilling offshore oil. Certain aspects contribute to the urge of drilling the offshore oil. The high-oil price is one of the aspects the public demands policies that can put in order to reduce gasoline prices. The other factor involves the revenue that can be incurred after oil exploitation through increasing the domestic oil production. The author use pathos claims by suggesting that, the two competing interests of reducing price of oils and economic benefits bringing a question on whether Russia should be allowed in drilling oil in the Arctic or not. The new strategy only aims in making economic foundation of Russia where it holds most gas and oil reserves globally. After the collapse of Soviet Union, the oil industry grew at a big rate over the two decades uplifting the economic and geopolitical revival of Russia. The economic benefit has made Russia to start extracting oil from Arctic. The main challenge that faces Russia is the lack of shale technology (Piskarev and Mikhail 2). The Chinese companies can offer shale technology of drilling the oil, but since United States companies are blocked, they cannot. There is use of ethos as the author suggests that the shale technology should be cutoff to Russia in order to hinder much exploitation of shale and deep sea resources. The author has used logos while considering that the high cost of gasoline should not be considered as a factor contributing to the drilling of oil because it can take ten years to extract and refine those offshore oils ready to use. Prices may fluctuate during that period and become low, but the oil prices are determined by the global supply of oil into the market. The drilling of new oil wells in Arctic can reduce the oil prices, but might bring shortage of oil energy in the future or affect the demand of the other commodities. The higher consumption of oil products can also cause more pollution as well as traffic congestion (Piskarev and Mikhail 3). If the prices of the oil do not change, many consumers cannot benefit from the production where only the owners and stockholders of Shell will benefit. The exploitation of oil should not only be beneficial to the stockholders, but also to the consumers. Ethos has been used by the author to explain the impacts of oil exploitation, which can also bring environmental risk. He emphasizes further that environmental risks usually depend on the amount of oil being spilled, which helps the reader to understand more about the need of imposing sanctions. The risk of the ice and cold makes it challenging to hold a spill. The spill can cause considerable damage to the tourism and local fishing companies. Many people around the Arctic regions rely on the natural resources to earn their living and can suffer when the regions are harmed by drilling activities and spill (Piskarev and Mikhail 4). The oil exploitation can also cause damages that can affect people’s health and misuse of other resources. The author has further used ethos to explain more about the need of imposing sanctions to Russia as explained in the paragraph. In most cases, transportation of oil is done using pipes in which if they rupture or break, the leaked oil can cause water and land pollution around the region. The author convinces the reader by trying to give more explanation on the effects of leaked oil . The leaked oil is harmful to human beings, animals, and vegetation and aquatic lives in the surrounding rivers, lakes, seas or oceans. Dust particles and smokes and flames from the burning oil can cause air pollution. Oil contamination can cause the ecosystems to dissolve after some decades (Piskarev and Mikhail 6). The people around the area are displaced to create room for extraction of the oil where some may not be compensated, or unable to acquire the oil products at cheaper prices. Russia considers oil exploitation as the only way of generating revenue to sustain the economy. However, the author has used pathos to elaborate that; Russia should use other means of generating energy production revenue by inventing the use of wind and water to generate power. In addition, the author has used logos by claiming that Russia has many oil exploitation sites that can sustain the economy of the country for several decades with developing new oil exploitation sites. The author further uses ethos by claiming that, if Russia gets shale technology for drilling new oil and shale resources from the Arctic, it will cause a rapid inflow of oil, which can affect the economic development. The domestic currency will appreciate at a higher rate, making the other sectors such as agriculture to be less competitive in the global markets. Oil products will be left to dominate the economy where prices of the other commodities fluctuate depending with their products. In conclusion, the author has effectively used the ethos, logos and pathos to support his claims over imposed sanctions that prohibit Russia from extracting oil products from Arctic region. He analyzes some of the consequences that may arise if any country is allowed to provide shale technology to Russian oil companies. The author claims that, Russia supplies the largest amount of gas and oil in the world market, and if it extracts more in Arctic, the products may become surplus in the world market, which can lower the economy of the country. He argues that, during the exploitation process, toxic by-products can be released into water masses and affect the aquatic life. Works Cited Piskarev, Alexey and Mikhail, Shkatov. Energy Potential of the Russian Arctic Seas: Choice of Development Strategy. Web. 28 Aug.2014. http://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-potential-of-the-russian-arctic-seas-choice-of-development-strategy/oclc/793511143. Read More