The biggest country in the world looks set to get even bigger as Russia prepares an application to extend its borders over 1.2 million square kilometres of Arctic waters. The claim will be presented to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf when it next convenes in 2009, a Russian law maker said Tuesday. If successful, the claim could give Russia the right to an estimated 10 billion metric tons of hydrocarbons buried under the Arctic seafloor.
Arctic explorer and State Duma member Artur Chilingarov said that the documented evidence to support Russia's right to extend its northern boarders would rely on evidence from an expedition by a team of Russian scientists in 2007. The team made acoustic scans of the Arctic seabed and claim that they have found an underwater ridge that links Russia to the North Pole, the Lomonosov Ridge.
"Taking into account the result of the 2007 expedition, we are preparing to submit an application by 2009," Chilingarov told a press conference on Tuesday.
Nearly a quarter of Russia's oil and gas reserves lie off its northern coasts and Russian companies are actively developing their activities in this resource-rich area. This week Gazprom announced that construction had begun on the first drilling platform for the Shtokman field off nortwest Russia in the Barents Sea. The rig is due to be completed in 2010 and will soon be followed by a second rig, giving Gazprom access to an estimated 3.7 trillion cubic meters of gas.
Russia is currently responsible for producing 80 percent of Arctic oil and 99 percent of Arctic gas. But environmentalists and some local populations argue that the oil companies' activities come at a cost. Oil spills can have particularly disastrous consequences in the Arctic as the freezing temperatures and remote location make them difficult to clean up. One such spill happened in 1994, when a rusty pipeline ruptured in 23 places in the Komi region, spilling more than 100,000 tons of oil into delicate Arctic ecosystems. The Russian clean-up operation included setting alight large pools of oil to prevent it from spreading, which in turn created further environmental problems.
But despite the environmental risks oil companies in a number of countries continue to push north in what has been termed the ‘Arctic oil rush.' Norway is opening more and more of its northern waters for drilling to make up for dwindling North Sea output while U.S. President George Bush asked congress on Wednesday to consider opening up America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration.
The five surrounding Arctic states, Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark, are currently limited in their activities to a 200 nautical mile (370 km) economic zone around their coasts, but they are all pushing to stake greater claims in the Arctic.
Russia has already made one failed attempt to lay claim to territory in 2001, but the UN demanded more evidence, spurring the 2007 expedition. As part of the expedition, two Russian mini-subs made an eight-hour dive beneath the North Pole and planted a titanium Russian flag on the seabed, to the irritation of its western Arctic neighbors. Peter MacKay, the Canadian foreign minister, accused Moscow of making an unsubstantiated claim to the area.
However, Chilingarov assured reporters on Tuesday that Russia's claims to Arctic territory will be based solely on international law and the evidence of scientific research. He denied accusations that the planting of the Russian flag was ‘imperial'
"The flag, just like singing the national anthem, is the symbol of any victory. If Russia won the European football championship, I am sure every house in the country would be decorated with the flag. This is normal," he said.
By Rebeccah Billing