World seabed in dispute at May 13 claims deadline

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

* Deadline for claiming seabed May 13

* Overlapping claims from South China Sea to North Pole

* U.N. Commission rulings will set access to oil, gas

By Alister Doyle

OSLO, May 12 (Reuters) - The world faces disputes over the seabed from the South China Sea to the North Pole at a May 13 U.N. deadline for claims meant as a milestone towards the final fixing of maritime boundaries.

Most coastal states have to define their continental shelves, areas of shallower water offshore, by Wednesday to a U.N. Commission that aims to set limits for national rights to everything from oil and gas to life on the ocean floor.

"This is the sweep after which the maritime limits should be fixed ... the final big adaptation of the world map," said Harald Brekke, a Norwegian official who is a vice-chair of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. "We are seeing many overlapping submissions," he told Reuters of the deadline, set in 2004. Forty-eight nations have made full claims and dozens more have made preliminary submissions under the deadline.

Russia has made the most spectacular claim by using a mini-sub to plant a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in 2007, an area that Denmark also says it will also claim.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLC649370

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Video of a report on this story: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x311278

This could be seen as just an environmental story, but the outcome will have serious geopolitical consequences...

[Submariner]

1. "We are seeing many overlapping submissions,"

this will be the 21st century version of border wars. The outcome of this will be controversial, because we can bet not everyone will be happy.