Moscow expects UN to start examining Russian bid for extending seabed borders

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) Russia expects that its application to the United Nations to approve its bid for extending the boundary of its part of the Sea of Okhotsk section of the continental shelf will receive consideration in the international organization early next year, said Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Denis Khramov.

Russia also wants the borders of its Arctic section of the continental shelf to be extended but will file an application to that effect with the United Nations later in 2014, Khramov told Russia’s Rossiya 24 television.

Khramov mentioned that in 2001 Russia combined both bids in the same application but that the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf insisted that Moscow revise the application.

“We have divided our applications: we’ve made a separate application on the Sea of Okhotsk and have just submitted it to the UN commission, and we are finishing work on a separate well-substantiated application on the north,” he said.

The Sea of Okhotsk application has been approved by Japan, the other Sea of Okhotsk littoral state, and has been accepted by the UN commission for consideration.

“We’ve reached an agreement with the UN commission to do a comparatively fast-track job. Last Friday we reported that application at a plenary meeting of the UN commission. On Monday, a subcommission as set up to deal with our application in a practical way, and on Monday we did more detailed work on that application with that subcommission. On Wednesday there were comments to the effect that we needed more revision work and submit (the application). We came to an agreement to have out next meeting during the next session of the commission in October or November, and we will provide new information during it. And if the commission has no more questions, it will prepare its assessment that it will put before a general UN plenary session. That session will take place early next year,” Khramov said.

He said the commission would scrutinize Russian evidence for the requested boundary extension.

The bid for extending Russia’s continental shelf boundaries in Arctic seas, including the Lomonosov Ridge and Mendeleev Ridge, would take much more time and effort to prepare as it would affect the interests of several other nations.

“The section on the shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk about which Russia has already filed an application is merely a relatively small part, the main part is our Arctic territory – the Lomonosov Ridge, the Mendeleev Rise, the Podvodnikov Basin. That application is tentatively due to be filed next year. But there needs to be a special study to find out whether that is an appropriate time for filing it. Russia is not the only player there, and other Arctic countries may also lay claim to their piece of that large cake – Canada, Denmark, the United States, Norway,” Khramov said.

“There need to be common principles there because it will depend on our common assessments of the geology of the region whether we are able to convince the commission and the world community that those ridges are not separate oceanic formations, and then they can’t be considered part of anyone’s territory but are natural extensions of the Canadian continental shelf on the Canadian side and the Russian continental shelf on the Russian side,” the deputy minister said.

“It will, of course, take time and political studies, intensive consultations, including consultations via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation,” he said.

Russia’s territory will be enlarged by 1.2 million square kilometers if the application is satisfied and may receive hydrocarbon deposits of up to 5 billion tonnes of conventional fuel, according to the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry.

Russian scientists argue that the Lomonosov Ridge and Mendeleev Rise are part of eastern Siberia’s relief.

However, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark also lay claim to that part of the shelf. Canada said earlier that it planned to try to provide evidence to the United Nations before 2013 to back its sovereignty claim to the Lomonosov Ridge.