Resource-political situation in the Arctic (2014)
Report of the project:
Position of the exclusive economic zones in the Arctic.
Source: Claus S., De Hauwere N., Vanhoorne B., Hernandez F., Mees J. (Flanders Marine Institute), 2013. Marineregions.org
According to the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, all shelf regions of the Northern Atlantic and of the Arctic Ocean belong, to the exclusive economic zones of the Arctic’s adjacent states Russia, USA, Canada, Denmark (Greenland) and Norway. In 1996, together with Finland, Iceland, Sweden and the Faroe Islands (represented by Denmark), they formed the Arctic Council, in which Germany has an observer status.
The raw materials of the Arctic are supposed to lie mostly in the territories of its adjacent states. These countries own also the exclusive sovereign right over exploration and exploitation licenses for raw materials in the shelf areas of the Arctic Ocean. With the agreement between Norway and Russia on the course of the border in the Barents Sea, possible boundary disputes in the Arctic are largely settled.
For Germany’s energy supply, raw materials from the Arctic states are of particular importance. In the year 2014, about 67 % of the natural gas and 50 % of the oil were imported from Russia and Norway. Therefore, knowledge on the Arctic’s resource potential and the assessment of possible environmental impacts caused by extraction and use of the arctic resources is also in Germany’s interest.