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A potential scrap over Antarctic sovereignty and the region’s energy resources is in the making, if territorial claimants start to demand slices of the Southern Ocean seabed.
Britain rattled the treaty late last year, after admitting to the press that it was thinking of a claim to extend its Antarctic territory offshore by a million square kilometres, along with oil, gas and mineral exploitation rights. This news infuriated South American nations contesting the original British territorial claim (one of the first, going back to 1909), and concerned environmental groups who view it as a potential threat to the fragile marine ecosystem in the region. The British request could be filed under Article 76 of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, which came into force in 1994. It gives coastal countries the right to claim up to 350 nautical miles (645 kilometres) off their shores, with the right to search for oil and natural gas, if the seabed is part of a continental shelf of shallower waters. Claimants must demonstrate, with detailed geological and depth soundings, precisely the outer limits of their continental shelf. Last year, Britain explored its contested Antarctic Ocean area with a submersible, and Norway has been conducting seismic surveys of the continental shelf off its territorial claim as well. A deadline of May 2009 has been set for most coastal nations to map their continental shelves and define their rights. Nine countries have already submitted extended seabed claims to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), including New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand has applied to the commission to take control over an area of continental shelf stretching 563 kilometres from shore in some places, which would give us rights under the CLCS to huge minerals and biological resources on the seabed. The claim did not include data regarding the seabed extending from the Ross Dependency, our Antarctic territorial claim that goes back to 1929, but reserved the right to make a claim in the Southern Ocean in the future. Australia’s claim to the CLCS in 2004 did include surveys and data defining its seabed off Antarctica. However, it requested the commission not to take action on it for the time being. Keeping the peaceThe Antarctic Treaty was signed by 12 countries in 1959, in the middle of the Cold War period. Signatories included the US, which proposed the treaty, and the USSR. Five decades later, it remains the fundamental governing agreement for the region. It represents a remarkable piece of diplomacy during a period of superpower hostility, and effectively banned military and nuclear activity in the region. It also froze Antarctic territorial claims, while protecting old claims and leaving the door open to others in the future, which will most likely include the US and Russia. A further protocol regarding environmental protection was agreed in 1991, prohibiting mineral-related activity, other than that for scientific research. This came into full force internationally in 1998, having been ratified by all 26 treaty parties and signed by 46 countries. It doesn’t come up for renewal until 2041. Up to 47 countries currently lay claim to a share of the frozen continent, and the presence of research stations flying the flags of at least 12 nations in this hostile part of the world indicates the intense global interest in Antarctica’s future. The US alone operates eight bases in the region, which house – over the summer – more than 1200 people. ResourcesIf you were to pick the most inhospitable workplace in the world, this would be it, with freezing temperatures down to minus sixty degrees Celsius, gale-force winds, and 24 hours of darkness during the winter. Much of the surrounding seabed is at such a depth that the extraction of gas, oil, or minerals is not yet technically feasible. The continent is 97 percent covered by a blanket of ice averaging 6000 feet in thickness, with interior ice depths extending 14,700 feet. This confines the study of its geology to a small percentage of exposed rock along the coast, or to the very tops of the mountain ranges that extend above the ice. Exactly what resources lay beneath the ice sheet is pure guesswork. Oil and mineral estimates are based on the theory of plate tectonics and the belief that South America, Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand were joined together 180 million years ago in a large landmass called Gondwana. The fact these countries share fossils, rock types and land features suggests that Antarctica could be a place of unlimited resource wealth. Coal deposits can be found along the coast and throughout the TransAntarctic mountains, formed when the region was covered by swamps between 35 million and 55 million years ago. While it is known that rock layers typical of those in Antarctica commonly contain large amounts of cobalt, chromium, nickel, vanadium, copper, iron and platinum group minerals, exploring for sizable concentrations of these below the ice will involve difficult and costly surveying and core drilling. And drilling exploration on the continent is nigh impossible, because of the thickness of the ice and the fact that it is sliding slowly towards the coast. Under the weight of the Antarctic treaty and its protocols, interested parties have so far taken a considerate approach to preserving its neutrality as a marine reserve. This is in strong contrast to the Arctic, which has been laid open to competition over minerals – remember August last year, when Russian explorers using a mini-sub planted a rust-free metal tricolor on the seabed beneath the North Pole. The Antarctic Treaty has been very effective in keeping the peace in the world’s last frontier, having survived the Cold War and five decades of world politics. Will it so successfully survive the pressure to find new energy resources? Any Antarctic seabed claims filed with the CLCS between now and May 2009 could be the first test of this. New Zealand’s slice
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For more than five decades, the Antarctic Treaty has kept the peace between those countries inclined to claim rights over slices of the world’s southern-most region and its mineral resources. However, as exploration technology improves and the ocean floor becomes more accessible, potential resources locked in the white continent and its surrounding oceans are looking more attractive.