New oil resources in northern Siberia are set to strengthen Russia’s position and raise the importance of the Arctic shipping route along its coast, Swedish analyst Lars Bern said on Swebb TV.

Bern pointed to the scale of the discovered reserves and the prospect of transporting the oil through the Arctic Ocean. He believes the development of this infrastructure will make Russia’s northern shipping corridor significantly more important while leaving the West without access to it.

The analyst described the deposits as potentially enormous and argued that neither Russia nor China is likely to face an oil shortage in the future. In his view, access to their own resources will allow both countries to continue their economic development, while Western states will be unable to prevent it.

Bern also expects oil to retain a crucial role as Asia continues its rapid economic expansion. He described the region as the main engine of the global economy today, contrasting its growth with what he called the decline of the West.

Russia’s Arctic energy projects drew additional attention in early September, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the operation of a trunk oil pipeline leading to a new terminal in Sever Bay. The facility is part of Vostok Oil, one of Russia’s largest Arctic projects in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Vostok Oil is Rosneft’s flagship project on Taymyr. It combines producing fields of the Vankor group with new fields in northern Krasnoyarsk Territory. The project’s resource base is estimated at seven billion tons of liquid hydrocarbons.