UNCLOS key framework for peaceful resolution of competing hydrocarbon claims in Arctic

Arctic states are also cognizant of the fact that the current legal framework provides an opportunity for them to obtain effectively sovereign control over the hydrocarbon-rich Arctic waters. The main goal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”), the international regulatory framework governing the use of the world’s oceans and seas, is to:

facilitate international communication, and . . . promote the peaceful uses of the seas and oceans, the equitable and efficient utilization of their resources, the conservation of their living resources, and the study, protection and preservation of the marine environment.⁵

Part VI of UNCLOS is key to Arctic hydrocarbon development because it governs the boundaries and extent of states’ sovereign control over offshore natural resources.⁶ A state exercises “sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring [its continental shelf] and exploiting its natural resources” and may exclude other states from doing so without its consent within its continental shelf.⁷ As a default rule, a state’s continental shelf extends to the greater of the outer edge of its continental margin⁸ (up to 350 nautical miles), or 200 nautical miles from the baselines⁹ from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.¹⁰ The burden is on the coastal state to establish that the outer edge of its continental margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles.¹¹ To do this, the state must submit certain information outlined in Article 76 to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (“CLCS”).¹² The CLCS, consisting of twenty-one experts nominated by individual states and elected by all parties to five-year terms, can accept or reject the claims.¹³ If the CLCS rejects the claim, the state must revise its submission to conform to the formula set out in Article 76.¹⁴ The limits established by the state are final and binding.¹⁵ Finally, the state provides the Secretary-General of the United Nations with charts and relevant data describing the established outer limits, and then the information is published.¹⁶