A US Coast Guard cutter will depart for the Arctic this week as part of a race against Russia to claim the vast spoils of oil and natural gas below the sea floor that both nations are scrambling to exploit.

The cutter Healy will leave Barrow, Alaska, tomorrow on a three-week journey to map the Arctic Ocean floor in a relatively unexplored area at the northern edge of the Beaufort Sea, in an attempt to bolster US claims to the area by proving that it is part of its extended outer continental shelf.

The rush to stake out territory across the Arctic has intensified since last August, when a Russian submarine planted the nation's flag on the sea floor beneath the North Pole, which was viewed as a provocative land grab.

That triggered an immediate response from the Canadian Government, which within a week announced that it was going to build two new military bases in the Arctic wilderness, a warning shot in the new Cold War over the far North's energy resources. The Healy will be joined by a Canadian icebreaker on September 6.

On board the Healy will be scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They will use an echo sounder to make a three-dimensional map of the sea floor in an area known as the Chukchi borderland.

The US Geological Survey believes that the Arctic region contains 90 billion barrels of oil waiting to be explored, about 15 per cent of the world's undiscovered reserves, and a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas.

Under international law each of five Arctic countries — Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark — controls an economic zone within 200 miles of its continental shelf. The limits of that shelf are in dispute, and as Russia seeks to expand its gas and oil reserves, the region is at the centre of a battle for energy rights and ownership.

Last summer's Russian expedition, when two mini-submarines reached the seabed 13,980ft (4,260m) beneath the North Pole, was part of a push by Moscow to find evidence for its claim that the Arctic seabed and Siberia are linked by a single continental shelf, thus making the polar region a geological extension of Russia.

The vessels recovered samples from the seabed in an attempt to demonstrate that the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater shelf that runs through the Arctic, is an extension of Russian territory.

The United Nations rejected that claim in 2002, citing lack of proof but Moscow is expected to make its case again next year.

Denmark and Canada also argue that the Lomonosov Ridge is connected to their territories. Norway too is conducting a survey to strengthen its case. All five Arctic nations are competing to secure subsurface rights to the seabed.

The Healy mission comes amid growing concerns in the US over Russia's strategic advantages in the Arctic. Russia has seven icebreakers to America's three and the Russian vessels are bigger and more powerful.

In recent testimony to Congress Admiral Thad Allen, the head of the US Coast Guard, said: “We are losing ground in the global competition. I'm concerned we are watching our nation's icebreaking capabilities decline.”

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