Environmentalists may be aghast at the looming prospect of oil rigs dotting the sea about the North Pole, but well before any companies can begin drilling, nations need to sort out who can legitimately claim what.
A team of British scientists from Durham University have started the ball rolling by drawing up a detailed map of the Artic (pdf) that shows all recognised, claimed, and potentially claimable areas for each of the half-dozen nations sharing seabed rights in the region.
Interestingly, while Russian scientists caused a furore a year ago by planting a flag on the seabed at the North Pole, the map identifies only two possible claimants to this iconic spot: Russia, and Denmark (through its sovereignty of Greenland).
Other areas are more confused - as are some of the possible definitions of what might belong to whom. But a large slice of the northernmost seas effectively fall into a no-man's-land known simply as The Area - open ocean administered by the International Seabed Authority on behalf of humanity as a whole.
Martin Pratt, director of the university's International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) said the team had attempted to show all known claims and agreed boundaries, including areas which have not appeared on media-sourced maps to date; those that could be claimed by Canada, Denmark and the U.S.
Using specialist geographical software, the team "buffered" the claims out accurately, and also derived potentially claimable areas based on continental shelf extent and depth.
Mr Pratt acknowledged energy security is driving interest, as is the fact that Arctic ice is melting more and more during the summer, allowing the prospect of drilling for the 90 billion barrels of oil the U.S. Geological Survey last month estimated the frozen region contained.
He pointed out that nations have a limited time to outline their claims within the timeframe set out by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, else it simply becomes part of The Area.
