A global forum dedicated particularly to petroleum exploration in the Arctic was unveiled Monday in the US oil hub of Houston.

The third Arctic Technology Conference (ATC) provides a platform for industry professionals, vendors and academics to share ideas, research and cutting-edge technologies to overcome the challenges for producing in the world's harshest climate, said Han Tiebout, chairman of the ATC program, in a press release.

The United States and Canada are leading their way in Arctic exploration, but there is also a huge amount of Arctic activity currently being planned and executed in regions of Scandinavia, Greenland and Russia, Tiebout said.

The Arctic has been receiving increasing interest from the petroleum industry as a result of advances in technology, continuing high oil prices and drastic melting of glaciers and ice.

A 2008 United States Geological Survey estimated that areas north of the Arctic Circle have 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil as well as 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum, which represents 13 percent of the undiscovered oil in the world.

The ATC, both a symposium and an exhibition, is an Arctic-focused expansion of the Offshore Technology Conference, the world's foremost event for development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production and environmental protection.

Next year's ATC will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.