When the titanium arm of the submersible Mir 1 planted a Russian flag in the seabed at the North Pole in 2007, the world took note. It was a provocative, if symbolic, gesture of possession – and one that sent a ripple of headlines around the world, stirring fears of diplomatic conflict over the northern territory. It also clearly demonstrated the gathering intensity of the so-called polar land rush.
Those rumblings came to the surface again in February, when a pair of Russian bombers conducted a test flight near Canada’s Arctic airspace. Three months later, a Russian security report hinted at possible military conflicts over oil and gas in the next decade.
With incredible petroleum riches at stake (recent estimates indicate up to a third of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil may lie under the Arctic seabed) it’s no wonder that the vast and forbidding north is being eyed by the five countries bordering it. While no other country has made the bold moves Russia has, Canada, Denmark (which controls Greenland), Norway and the United States are all working to settle exactly how much of the Arctic’s riches should rightfully fall within their borders.
Though it may appear the Arctic is under siege, and while it’s very true everyone wants a piece of the petroleum prize, those involved in the process to solidify the marine borders would disagree. “It’s not a race, it’s not a conflict, it’s an orderly process,” says Jacob Verhoef, the federal geologist leading the mapping mission that will form the basis for Canada’s claim to millions of square kilometers of petroleum-rich Arctic seabed.XX It may also surprise outsiders that it’s a cooperative process, with significant collaboration and pooling of resources between scientists in particularly Canada, Denmark and the United States.
Verhoef’s groundbreaking mission (many subsea areas currently being studied have never been mapped before) has been ongoing since 2004. The field seasons are short and intense; the amount of data collected, immense. The potential ramifications are substantial.
Verhoef, who is based in Halifax, isn’t used to the attention this particular, and particularly massive, mission has brought. “It’s fascinating from a science point of view, but it’s also exciting because we don’t always see the implementation of our work; usually there is a scientific paper as a result,” he says. “But this may be defining theouter limits of our country.”
In Atlantic Canada, interest in the unfurling story of Arctic sovereignty is high. With the world running out of easily accessible petroleum products, the opening of Arctic waters and an expected increase in the price of oil, northern resources present major opportunities for businesses and institutions who have established themselves on the cutting edge of ocean engineering and working in harsh climates.
Another factor in successful development, of course, is political stability. Potential land disputes are definitely on the radar of politicians and industry alike.
“Generally, we always want to have certainty of the game going in,” says Mark MacLeod, Chevron Canada’s Atlantic Canada manager. In his previous position as managing director of Chevron Norway,MacLeod had to deal with boundary disputes, generally between Norway and Russia, regularly. “They are hard, hard issues to resolve,” he says. “(A dispute) does curtail activity.”
Dr. Verhoef describes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Canada ratified in 2003, as “the constitution of the ocean.” His mapping work is directly related to Article 76 of that constitution, which outlines how a country may be granted subsea rights beyond the established 200 nautical miles. If Verhoef and his team can establish undersea geologic and geographic continuity – if they can demonstrate undersea rock formations are connected to Canada’s continental shelf – they can thus argue Canada’s territory should be extended.
Countries who signed the treaty have 10 years to submit data to the UN commission for altered offshore boundaries. Verhoef says Canada is, thus far, on track for meeting its target of 2013.
While Canada and other nations work to gather and analyze data in the harsh and little understood Arctic, there’s another potential seafloor dispute right in Atlantic Canada. In March, France made a submission to the United Nations to extend its rights on the continental shelf around the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
