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Russian explorers readied for a historic descent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole on Wednesday as part of an expedition to claim the area for Russia, expedition organisers said.
Two Russian ships carrying the explorers, a research vessel and a nuclear ice-breaker were due to reach by 1600 GMT the site from which two mini-submarines will make the descent, they said in a statement.

“The dive is due to happen on Wednesday night,” said Sergei Bolyasnikov, an official at the Arctic and Antarctic Institute in Saint Petersburg, which is organizing the mission.

The dive is believed to be the first of its kind and is part of an epic voyage that aims to advance Russian claims to a swathe of Arctic seabed thought to be rich in oil and gas.

Two Mir mini-submarines were to take the explorers, led by parliament member Artur Chilingarov, to a depth of around 4,200 metres (14,000 feet) to the seabed, where they will carry out scientific tests and deposit a Russian flag.

“Having your feet reach such a depth is like taking the first step on the moon,” Chilingarov, a veteran Arctic explorer, was quoted as saying in an interview with RIA Novosti news agency.

“The Arctic-2007 mission should become a landmark in Russia’s mastery of the North Pole,” the Novye Izvestia daily wrote Wednesday. “There is already serious talk of a new Cold War.”

Russian media reports suggested a US expedition that set off from Norway on July 1 to study another part of the Arctic seabed, the Gakkel Ridge, was part of a race between Moscow and Washington for the Arctic’s mineral riches.

But the US expedition’s robotic vehicles were to hunt for “life and hydrothermal vents on the Arctic seafloor,” said the website of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which was organising the voyage.

The Russian expedition, which set off on July 24 from the northern Russian port of Murmansk, hopes to establish that a section of seabed passing through the North Pole is in fact an extension of Russia’s landmass.

There is growing international rivalry in the region as energy reserves grow scarce in other parts of the world and the melting of the polar ice caps makes the area more accessible for research and economic activity.

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Oil prices retreated after jumping to a new record Wednesday on the government’s report of a steep drop in crude inventories and surge in refinery activity.
Crude prices initially rose after the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels last week, far more than expected. But gas futures fell on word that refiners ramped up their operations much quicker than expected. As the slide in gas futures prices accelerated, oil prices had little choice but to follow, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

“The refineries have finally gotten their act together,” Flynn said. “They’re back to normal, almost.”

As the industry rebounds from a spring and early summer in which refiners experienced an unusual number of outages, it is drawing down crude inventories that had hit 9-year highs. Some investors see that draw as a sign crude inventories are tightening.

“That’s going to keep the (crude) market underpinned for now,” Flynn said.

But traders also remember last summer, when oil prices plummeted by almost $20 in a little over a month after hitting record highs.

“Oil does have a tendency to peak in late summer,” Flynn said. “Seasonally-speaking, this bull market’s on borrowed time.”

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $1.30 to $76.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $78.77 earlier. That surpasses the previous intraday record of $78.40, set in July 2006.

On the other side of the petroleum supply chain, refineries are producing more gasoline. That news sent September gasoline futures down 7.97 cents to $2.0262 a gallon on the Nymex.

Retail prices typically lag the futures market, and prices at the pump fell by 0.9 cent overnight to a national average of $2.867 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices peaked at $3.227 a gallon in late May. Gas futures have fallen steeply in recent weeks as refineries have ramped up operations.

Refineries are also churning out more distillates, including heating oil. Nymex heating oil futures fell by 5.01cents to $2.0731 a gallon.

Nymex natural gas futures gained 21.5 cents to $6.406 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, September Brent crude fell $1.51 to $75.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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The FBI and IRS have searched the home of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in a ski resort in Alaska as part of an investigation into his links with an oil-services company, officials said on Monday.

“The FBI and IRS are conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Girdwood, Alaska,” an FBI spokesman said in Washington, but gave no further details.

The Alaskan politician, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, issued a statement saying: “My attorneys were advised this morning that federal agents wished to search my home in Girdwood in connection with an ongoing investigation.

“I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence the outcome,” the statement said.

Girdwood is about 40 miles south of Anchorage, the state’s largest city.

Stevens is the subject of a grand-jury investigation into his links with managers of VECO Corp., the state’s largest oil-services company, as well as numerous unrelated fisheries matters.

In May, Bill Allen, then the chief executive of VECO, along with a vice president, Rick Smith, pleaded guilty to several federal corruption charges. The two admitted paying over $400,000 to bribe Alaska lawmakers.

Allen had been a financial supporter of Stevens’ campaigns and a partner with him on a race horse. He also oversaw the a project to remodel Stevens’ Girdwood home in 2000, vetting bills and construction work.

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