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EU nations seek to annex lucrative tract of Atlantic seabed

A vast tract of the Atlantic seabed more than 300km offshore is being claimed by a coalition of four European countries eager to expand their oil and gas prospecting rights.

The joint submission to the UN by France, Ireland, Spain and the UK is based on a novel legal approach that is transforming the international politics of underwater prospecting.

Environmentalists have condemned the procedure as legitimizing "land grabs."

The diamond-shaped zone straddles the outer edge of the continental shelf under the Celtic sea and the Bay of Biscay. It covers 80,000km2, an area the size of Ireland, at a point where the seabed plunges down to what is known as the Porcupine Abyssal Plain.

The waters there are up to 5,000m deep, almost double the depth at which commercial extraction of gas is viable at present. Deposits of frozen methane, which may provide another energy source, are expected to be found.

The combined claim was submitted two weeks ago to the New York-based UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).

The four countries are seeking recognition of their collaborative prospecting rights before deciding how to subdivide the area.

The application is based on fresh geological and geophysical data obtained last year by a team of scientists from the four EU states working on the Spanish research vessel Hesperides. The ship traversed the ocean, tracking submerged slopes and plot-ted what is described as a new "continental shelf outer limit."

The submission, due to be debated at the next CLCS session in August, is the first combined claim to be heard by the UN group. By acting together, the EU countries hope to overcome any international resistance.

What they hope to show is that the outer reaches of the shelf extend beyond what had previously been established. By increasing the shelf's size they will be able to annex the new resources.

Last month's submission by the four EU states is based on an alternative, legal means of extending the normal 200-mile (322km) exploration limits. Such claims rely on demonstrating by soundings that the adjoining continental shelf runs further out to sea. Land can be claimed up to 60 nautical miles (111km) from the bottom of the shelf.

"Where the submerged prolongation of its land territory extends beyond 200 nautical miles," an Irish government statement explained, "a state is required [to set out] ... the coordinates of the outer limits of the shelf claimed and. ... [provide] technical and scientific data to support the claim."

But Greenpeace's policy director in the UK, Simon Reddy, branded the process as unfair.

"This is becoming a bone of contention. Once a few states try this then everyone will have a go. It's basically a land grab," he said.

"Countries are trying to seize international areas for their oil and gas resources. Only really wealthy countries [can afford] access to this legal framework." he said.
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