Russia Seeks to Claim Arctic Seabed
Pastor Dale Morgan
Russia Seeks to Claim Arctic Seabed*
By DOUGLAS BIRCH
The Associated Press
Friday, July 27, 2007; 2:24 PM
MOSCOW -- Russian scientists hope to plunge to the seabed beneath the
North Pole in the next few days in a miniature sub and plant a titanium
capsule containing the Russian flag, symbolically claiming much of the
Arctic Ocean floor for Moscow.
Thick sea ice threatens to thwart the expedition, an engineer with
Russia's premier polar research institute said Friday. But if the effort
succeeds, it could mark the official start of a very cold diplomatic war
for the Arctic, one of the Earth's last energy frontiers.
A convoy consisting of a research vessel and an icebreaker, and led by
Russia's most famous polar explorer, set sail Tuesday from Murmansk
toward the North Pole _ shadowed, according to Russian TV reports, by at
least one Norwegian military aircraft.
On Saturday, Russian researchers expect to perform test dives to depths
of over a mile in two miniature subs near Franz Josef Land, a Russian
archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
The expedition, supported by the Kremlin, was dispatched to buttress
Russia's claims to more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf _
an area that by some estimates contains 10 billion tons of oil and gas
deposits. Experts say the effort is part of Russia's long-range efforts
to expand its energy empire.
Arkady Soshnikov, chief engineer of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic
Scientific Research Institute in St. Petersburg, told The Associated
Press this year's unusually thick sea ice could hamper the expedition.
While the nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya is capable of pushing
through most pack ice, Soshnikov said, the research vessel Akademik
Fyodorov may have trouble following. Still, the current plan calls for
the mini-subs to descend to the seabed under the North Pole on Monday or
Tuesday, he said.
Despite this summer's conditions near the pole, the area of the Arctic
Ocean covered by ice has been shrinking since the early 20th century and
the change has accelerated in the last decade, according to the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some scientists blame
the shrinkage on the effects of human-driven climate change.
As the Arctic's ice recedes, its waters are becoming more navigable _
and its riches more accessible to a resource-hungry world.
The largely unexplored Arctic seabed could contain vast oil and gas
deposits; the recoverable petroleum reserves of several countries that
claim the shores of the northern polar ocean _ including the U.S.,
Russia and Norway _ are rapidly being exhausted.
About 100 scientists on the Akademik Fyodorov are looking for evidence
that the Lomonosov Ridge _ a 1,240 mile underwater mountain ridge that
crosses the polar region and connects Russia and Greenland _ is a
geologic extension of Russia, and therefore can be claimed by Russia
under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
President Vladimir Putin considers the expedition "very important,"
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the AP. "Being a unique scientific
expedition it is of course supported by the president."
The Kremlin, he added, is well aware of the territorial implications of
the research. "Besides being of scientific importance, of course we will
wait and see the results of that expedition, whether they determine that
the bottom is a continuation" of the Lomonosov Ridge, he said.
Moscow has claimed the polar region since at least the days of the
Bolsheviks, and argued that the geological data backed up this claim in
2002 in an application to the U.N. committee that administers the Law of
the Sea. The U.N. rejected Moscow's application, citing a lack of evidence.
Russia is expected to go back to the U.N. in 2009 with data from its
recent expeditions.
Emboldened by surging oil revenues, the Kremlin has in recent years
revived the Soviet-era practice of direct economic, scientific and
geopolitical competition with the West. In the case of the Arctic
seabed, at least, some nations seem ready to respond in kind.
Denmark's scientists hope to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an
extension of the Danish territory of Greenland, not Russia.
Thorkild Meedom of Denmark's Ministry of Science, Technology and
Innovation said Canadian and Danish scientists on two icebreakers are
now conducting mapping studies of the north polar sea.
"We're going step by step and mapping as conditions permit," Meedom
said. "You have to keep in mind that it is an extremely difficult region
and very hard to collect data."
Nations that border the Arctic are concerned about security as well as
energy. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard co-sponsored a symposium in
Washington this month titled "The Impact of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on
Naval and Maritime Operations."
And Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said earlier this month that
Canada plans to spend $7 billion to build and operate up to eight Arctic
patrol ships.
"In defending our nation's sovereignty, nothing is as fundamental as
protecting Canada's territorial integrity" at a time of rising oil, gas
and mineral prices, he said.
Russia's current push to the pole is being led by Artur Chilingarov, 68,
perhaps the nation's most famous living Arctic and Antarctic explorer
and deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament. He was named a Hero
of the Soviet Union for leading a 1985 expedition in the Southern Ocean,
in which his vessel became locked in sea ice.
Chilingarov's expedition to map the Lomonosov Ridge is the second by
Russia in recent months.
About Russian 50 scientists spent six weeks mapping the Arctic seabed
this spring, and returned in June to say they had confirmed Russia's
claim to the region.
Viktor Posyolov, a leader of that expedition, told the AP that dropping
the Russian flag under the Arctic doesn't have much practical
significance, since the contest for the region will be played out in
lengthy scientific studies and U.N. debates.
"It means nothing," said Posyolov, deputy director of the Institute of
World Ocean Geology and Mineral Resources of the Ministry of Natural
Resources.
While some scientists predict the Arctic will contain vast reserves of
oil and natural gas, Posyolov said no know one really knows for sure.
"There are no proven resources," he cautioned, adding that the
technology needed to exploit any such resources has yet to be developed.
"This is a question for several generations after us."
________
Associated Press Writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this
report.