The United States unilaterally announced the expansion of claims to sovereignty over a significant part of the continental shelf in the Arctic and Bering Sea. Russia and Canada also claim part of the territory in this zone, Bloomberg reported.
According to him, President Joe Biden’s administration has “significantly expanded the United States’ claims to sovereignty over the ocean floor to an area twice the size of California.” We are talking about a previously published State Department statement, which contains a new map of the extended continental shelf indicating the outer boundaries of the zone over which the United States claims sovereignty, TASS quotes.
The agency notes that the extended continental shelf occupies about 1 million square meters. km and is mainly located in the Arctic and the Bering Sea. The area is becoming “increasingly strategic” and is also claimed by Russia and Canada, Bloomberg adds.
According to international law, the North Pole and the adjacent Arctic Ocean region do not belong to any country. In addition to Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States lay claim to various areas of the Arctic Ocean floor. The interest of states in the northern seas is dictated by the fact that their depths contain 83 billion tons of standard fuel, of which about 80% comes from the Barents and Kara seas. At the same time, the probability of discovering new large oil and gas fields in virtually unexplored shelf areas is very high.
In August 2015, Russia submitted an application to the UN Commission to expand the boundaries of the continental shelf in the Arctic by 1.2 million square meters. km. The plans include annexing the Lomonosov Ridge and other areas of the seabed, including the Podvodnikov Basin, the Mendeleev Rise, the southern end of the Gakkel Ridge and the North Pole zone. According to preliminary estimates, this will allow increasing potential hydrocarbon reserves by 5 billion tons of standard fuel.
2023-12-24 10:13:00
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