PaulusP,
Let me update your post a little bit.
If you believe that you can spend trillions of dollars that you don't have, paint roofs white to stop global warming, and take over industries & lay people off to create jobs it is easy to imagine there are plenty of unearned riches just waiting to be explored below arctic ice.
There was an election, remember?

More like a Cheech and Chong movie. Two dudes fly over the Arctic in an airplane and one looks out the window.

"Mey man, look at all that oil!"

"That's water, you jackass!"

"No no, man, that's oil. I can see the sheen, man!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, the oil is underground."

"I don't care, man, I can see the oil. There is a billion, gazillion gallons of oil out there, man. There is enough oil out there to last for centuries ... (sigh)."

"This is supposed to be a scientific estimate. I can't tell the Geologic Survey that there are a 'billion-gazillion' barrels of oil ... "

"Gallons, man, gallons. Not barrels, gallons!"

"What's that number on the back of that piece of paper?"

"It's a phone number of that girl I met at the bar last night."

"Well, double it and that will be our 'official estimate'."

"Hey man! I can see Russia from here ..."