Laying Claim to the Rich Arctic Seafloor - Green Blog
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard icecutter Healy on a previous voyage in the Arctic Circle.
Research vessels from the United States, Canada and Russia are again steaming into the Arctic Circle this month with the aim of mapping the seafloor and laying claim to potentially vast hydrocarbon and mineral riches.
Under international law, countries can claim exclusive energy and mineral rights no farther than 200 miles offshore. Yet those exclusive claims can be vastly expanded for Arctic nations that prove that their part of the continental shelf extends beyond that zone. Already, Russia has stated that its continental shelf reaches all the way to the North Pole, although these claims have yet to be verified by the United Nations.
The Russian research vessel Academician Fyodorov left port in late July to conduct geological and seismological studies for 100 days. The expedition’s findings are intended to substantiate the country’s claims on the Arctic seafloor, a Russian lawmaker told the Voice of Russia.
A joint expedition by the the United States Coast Guard icebreaker Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis St. Laurent will conduct similar research for six weeks in August and September. The two vessels will explore a previously uncharted area of the Beaufort Sea, off the Alaskan and Canadian coasts, whose ownership is disputed by both countries.
All three nations are preparing claims to subsea Arctic territory under the United Nations Law of the Sea, and while the United States has not yet signed that treaty, there will likely be a push for approval before 2013, the deadline for claims under the law.
According to estimates by the United States Geological Survey, as much 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,660 trillion cubic feet of natural gas remain untapped in the Arctic. The rapid melting of ice in the region attributed to climate change has raised expectations among governments and private industry for how much of those deposits might be recoverable.
With discoveries dwindling in many other parts of the world, multinational oil companies are already stepping up their own exploration efforts in the Arctic. In July, a joint venture between BP and a Canadian subsidiary of Exxon Mobil announced it would explore for oil in the Beaufort Sea — within Canada’s exclusive economic zone only, however.
Wouldn't it be nice if things weren't always about who owns what, but perhaps about, for instance, how what's out there can benefit all of us?
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