Eight countries are vying for rights to the North Pole. They all want a piece
of the icy Arctic region’s untold amounts of oil, natural gas and other
offshore resources. In the fall, Denmark became the latest country to throw
its hat in the ring.
Currently, coastal nations of the world own the continental shelf up to 200
miles offshore of their own land and can utilize it without international approval.
Beyond that point, however, the ocean becomes international domain. But the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is changing that rule, giving
ratifying countries 10 years to prove that they have the right to claim areas
farther than 200 miles. Denmark ratified the law in mid-November and announced
in October that it will spend $25 million to explore and identify areas in the
North Pole that may fall within the country’s jurisdiction.
“We’re doing investigations in five areas in order to find out if
we have a claim,” says Kai Sørensen, vice director of Denmark’s
geological survey. The country must determine if the regions, including the
Lomonosov Ridge, located beneath the Arctic sea ice and a portion of the North
Pole, are a natural prolongation of the continental shelf of Greenland and the
Faroe Islands, both Danish-held territories.
Although more than 130 countries are participating in the convention, there
are only eight countries concerned with the Arctic region: Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, Canada, Russia, Finland, Iceland and the United States, all of which
have signed. But signing is not enough — only countries that ratify the
Law of the Sea can submit a claim to the United Nations.
Russia, which was the first country to ratify the law, has already submitted
a claim to the United Nations for review, Sørensen says, and Canada ratified
in November 2003. The United States has proposed ratification, but the action
is being held up in the Senate, he says. “If two countries claim the same
area, bilateral negotiations performed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will
decide the outcome,” says Bente Olsen, spokesperson for Denmark’s
Minister of Science.
The Arctic is “the great frontier,” says Tom Ahlbrandt, chief of the
world energy program at the U.S. Geological Survey, but it has remained largely
unexplored because of adverse climate conditions and the lack of appropriate
technologies for exploring and mapping the region. “There’s a lot
of technological development going on, and these new developments are just increasing
at higher latitudes,” Ahlbrandt says.
The country has been working in collaboration with Canadian teams to help remediate
the difficulties and costs associated with exploration and development in harsh
Arctic conditions.
Laura Stafford
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