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Sustainable development of the Arctic is the main priority of the state policy regarding regional development of the Russian Federation. The study of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation for the formation of principles, methods and strategies, as well as organizational and economic mechanisms for its sustainable development is topical at present. This article deals with one of the strategic decision-making tools used in the process of implementing the development program for the Russian Arctic, namely, the assessment of the technical and economic potential of the Arctic fields. The purpose of this assessment is to rank the fields according to the priority of their commissioning for a more optimal distribution of costs in the development of Arctic resources. This paper presents the results and methodology of technical and economic potential estimation in general, and the potential of the Arctic oil and gas fields in particular. An analysis of the conceptual apparatus in the field of the evaluation of various types of potential is carried out. The methodology for assessing the technical and economic potential of a field are investigated. The problems arising in the process of such an assessment are revealed. Recommendations for improving the methodology of assessing the technical and economic potential of oil and gas fields in the Arctic are given. The necessity of expanding the list of indicators for assessing the technical and economic potential of these fields, taking into account current trends, has been noted. A list of 10 technical and 26 economic indicators to assess the technical and economic potential of the development of offshore Arctic fields is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The melting of ice creates favorable conditions for the development of the Arctic by elevating the Arctic's geostrategic value and stoking national competition. As a result, many states, both within and beyond the Arctic region, have recently released Arctic strategies or updated existing ones, clarifying their roles, interests, priorities, and policies for Arctic international cooperation. In this study, a database is generated with a collection of Arctic strategies from 16 states, and then grounded theory is applied to code the texts in these strategy documents. Using this code, word-frequency analysis, cross-tabulation, correlation analysis, and cooperative-network analysis are implemented to explore competition and collaboration in the Arctic among these 16 states. The results indicate that Arctic states are significantly concerned with governance, economic and social development, and security and stability, while environmental protection and scientific research are given more attention by non-Arctic states. In addition, the highest value of the Pearson correlation coefficient is identified as 0.85 for collaboration and Arctic public security affairs, which indicates that collaboration on Arctic security will dominate the development of Arctic affairs in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]