Russia to make its stake to UN to fix Arctic shelf limits

Moscow, Aug 7 (UNI) Russia plans to make a submission to the United Nations to fix the outer limits of the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean not earlier than 2010, the director of geology and use of subsoil resources department of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources Sergei Fyodorov said here.

If the UN commission supports the bid, Russia will get the right to develop oil and gas deposits on the Arctic Ocean floor.

According to our estimates and those of foreign colleagues, the potential of the continental part of the Arctic Ocean and of the extension of the continental part of the shelf is high, Fyodorov told Ekho Moskvy radio.

Deposits have already been discovered in the Barents Sea, the Shtokman deposit, as well as deposits in the Kara Sea, he said.

Two Russian mini-submarines Mir-I and Mir-II reached the seabed below the North Pole last Thursday to boost Moscow's claims to the Arctic.

Fyodorov said Russia made a submission to the United Nations commission on the limits of the continental shelf back in late 2001, but the commission then made remarks, also regarding the Lomonosov and Mendeleyev ridges, noting that it is necessary to supply more convincing geological and geophysical data confirming that these are the extension of the Russian continental shelf.

Fyodorov said exploration was conducted in the Arctic region from 2005 to 2007. The latest expedition to the Lomonosov ridge ended in May-June 2007 and its data are now processed.

He said a number of studies are to be carried out in 2008-2009 before the application was made to augment the application.

We hope that our submission will be satisfied as early as 2010, Fyodorov said.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin today congratulated the crew of the Russian Arctic expedition, the Kremlin press service said.

''I congratulate the team of the Arctic 2007 complex expedition and the crews of the research ship Akademik Fyodorov and of the nuclear- powered icebreaker Rossiya on the successful completion of an operation to submerge Mir mini-submarines beneath the North Pole'', Putin said.

''A unique experiment to raise ground and biological samples from a depth of 4,261 meters was accomplished for the first time in history. The flag of the Russian Federation is now placed on the floor of the Arctic Ocean, in the geographical point marking the North Pole,'' He said.

UNI