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Russia may lay a claim to energy-rich area in the Arctic

Russia may lay a claim to energy-rich area in the Arctic

 

Since 1937 Russia is extensively exploring the Arctic region and the same efforts seem to be fruitful as recently Russian geologists have claimed that 1.2m sq km (463,000 sq miles) of Arctic region has abundant energy resources.

The Arctic region is one of the unique areas among Earth’s ecosystems and is about the size of France, Germany and Italy taken together. This time geologists from the Oceanology Research Institute in St Petersburg spent 45 days studying the Lomonosov underwater ridge. The team has estimated that the Lomonosov ridge area in the Arctic contains oil and gas reserves of up to 10bn tonnes. However, Russia has not staked a formal claim to this area till now.

 

Earlier on December 20, 2001 Russia had had given an official submission into the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In this document it had pointed at establishing new outer limits of the continental shelf of Russia beyond the previous 200 mile zone, but within the Russian Arctic sector. However, in 2002 the UN Commission did not show any rejection or acceptance to the Russian proposal and recommended carrying out additional research.

As far as The Law of the Sea Convention is concerned it allows states an economic zone of 200 nautical miles and can sometimes be expanded.

To stretch out the zone the essential claim any state has to prove is that its structure of the continental shelf is related to the geological structure within its territory.

At present none of the country’s shelf extends up to the North Pole and therefore makes it an international area around the Pole. The Arctic area comes under the International Seabed Authority administration.

Source: BBC

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