Russia will address the UN on the expansion of its Arctic shelf next spring. If successful the move would see the country adding an area of 1.2 million sq. kilometers in the Arctic Ocean, holding 5 billion tons of standard fuel, to its territory.
A field investigation to make such an appeal possible has been successfully completed in the area, Sergey Donskoy, the country’s natural resources minister, said.
The results of the new research will allow for updating Russia’s
initial application, which the country filed to the United
Nations in 2001.
Russia intends to add another 1.2 million square kilometers of
territory in the Arctic ocean to its continental shelf.
The move would permit Russia to increase its potential
hydrocarbon reserves by at least 5 billion tons of standard fuel,
Donskoy said, adding that “those are just the most humble
assessments, and I’m sure that the actual figure will be a lot
larger.”
“For us, for the Ministry [of Natural Resources], this is a
much anticipated day. We’ll submit an application on our shelf,
on our Arctic borders to the UN in spring next year,” the
minister said, as he greeted the researchers from the Akademik
Fedorov on their return to St. Petersburg.
He stressed that the Akademik Fedorov expedition “performed
all that was required, even exceeding the initial plans."
“We now possess all the necessary studies to put an
application together and present it to the Commission on the
Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). We have a full amount of
scientific data and continue to work with the best geologists,
who are part of the Commission," Donskoy said.
The expedition was launched on July 10, spanning an area of
350,000 square kilometers in the Arctic Ocean.
The scientists carried out comprehensive studies to establish the
geological and geophysical basis for assessing the petroleum
potential of the continental shelf beyond Russia’s exclusive
economic zone.
For the UN to recognize Moscow’s ownership of those areas, it
must be scientifically proven that they are a continuation of the
continental crust with the same general geological structure.
"I'm confident that it's our shelf. All the specialists are
saying that we have a very good application. The acceptance of
this application by the Commission is virtually an acceptance of
our geological model by the specialists from all other Arctic
interests,” Donskoy said.
Over 60 large hydrocarbon fields have been discovered above the
Arctic Circle, with 43 of them in the Russian sector.
The total recoverable resources of Russia’s part of the Arctic
are estimated at 106 billion tons of oil and 69.5 trillion cubic
meters of gas.
The discovery of the deposits sparked international competition
over the region’s resources, in which all the Arctic states –
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the US –
are involved.
Approximately 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas
and 15 percent of its oil lie in the Arctic, with an estimated 84
percent of the Arctic’s 90 billion barrels of oil and 47.3
trillion cubic meters of gas remaining offshore.