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    At Secretariat Comment Request

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    The document is a request from a journalist to the executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat for comment on potential oil and gas prospecting activities in the Southern Ocean by a Russian research vessel. The activities appear to be commercially focused and in breach of regulations prohibiting such activities below 60 degrees south. Specialists have also raised concerns about loopholes and lack of enforcement in the treaty system. The journalist is seeking a substantive response from the Secretariat on these issues by a specified deadline.

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    At Secretariat Comment Request

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    The document is a request from a journalist to the executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat for comment on potential oil and gas prospecting activities in the Southern Ocean by a Russian research vessel. The activities appear to be commercially focused and in breach of regulations prohibiting such activities below 60 degrees south. Specialists have also raised concerns about loopholes and lack of enforcement in the treaty system. The journalist is seeking a substantive response from the Secretariat on these issues by a specified deadline.

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    At Secretariat Comment Request

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    The document is a request from a journalist to the executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat for comment on potential oil and gas prospecting activities in the Southern Ocean by a Russian research vessel. The activities appear to be commercially focused and in breach of regulations prohibiting such activities below 60 degrees south. Specialists have also raised concerns about loopholes and lack of enforcement in the treaty system. The journalist is seeking a substantive response from the Secretariat on these issues by a specified deadline.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    4K views2 pages

    At Secretariat Comment Request

    Uploaded by

    DocumentsZA
    The document is a request from a journalist to the executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat for comment on potential oil and gas prospecting activities in the Southern Ocean by a Russian research vessel. The activities appear to be commercially focused and in breach of regulations prohibiting such activities below 60 degrees south. Specialists have also raised concerns about loopholes and lack of enforcement in the treaty system. The journalist is seeking a substantive response from the Secretariat on these issues by a specified deadline.

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    of 2

    Attention: Albert Lluberas, executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat

    Re: Daily Maverick South Africa comment request on potential prospecting activities in
    the Southern Ocean aboard Russian polar vessel Akademik Alexander Karpinsky;
    Antarctic Treaty governance challenges

    We hope you are well.

    Hereby a request for comment on what appears to be vast, commercially weighted oil and
    gas prospecting activities in the Southern Ocean by the Russian polar research
    vessel Akademik Alexander Karpinsky — despite Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)
    regulations prohibiting such activities in the area below 60°S.

    As confirmed by polar law specialists interviewed by us, commercially weighted


    prospecting is not scientific research and would therefore be in breach of the Madrid
    Protocol’s Article Seven, adopted in 1991 and in force since 1998.

    Please note that many of these activities have been published, among others, in English
    and Russian on a) geological exploration holding company Rosgeo’s website (as press
    releases); and b) on the website of the Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition, a Rosgeo
    subsidiary and owners of the Akademik Alexander Karpinsky.

    It must naturally be noted that:

    a) The Antarctic Treaty System is based on the notable achievements of


    ostensibly reserving an entire continent and its surrounding oceans for “peace” and
    “science”;
    b) There may be no legal vacuum in the Antarctic; and that
    c) The Madrid Protocol’s Article Seven does not, of course, expire — but can be
    modified from 2048 subject to protocol conditions should any consultative party
    call for such a review.

    However, polar specialists have also raised with us the following concerns:

    • Article Seven’s 13-word brevity offers such loosely defined concepts that this leaves
    them hostage to interpretation;
    • Cornerstone ATS concepts such as peace and science are undefined by ATS
    constitutions and can therefore be "weaponised" to a lesser or greater degree in
    potential breach of widely lauded environmental agreements such as the Madrid
    Protocol;
    • The line between geological research and prospecting appears problematically blurred
    in the practical application of the Madrid Protocol, potentially breaching the
    acceptable boundaries of the ATS’s “freedom of scientific investigation” principle;
    • Perennial reaffirmations such as the recent Paris and Madrid declarations are
    repeatedly advanced by treaty members, yet such efforts appear largely ceremonial
    and offer no legal power to hold to account those member states engaging in activity
    that is inconsistent with global environmental agreements such as the Paris
    Agreement and even potentially unlawful;
    • The Paris Declaration, and other declarations like it, have not agreed that we would
    not mine Antarctica in perpetuity, or made any formal decisions to extend the Article
    Seven prohibition for another 50 years, despite potentially irreversible existential risks
    of an ecological nature facing planet Earth — and the Antarctic in particular;
    • Much of the research that underpins the future of our entire planet comes out of the
    Antarctic, and yet it would seem that treaty parties are not only hamstrung by
    consensus voting; but apparently powerless to stop operations like commercially
    weighted prospecting that may also be conducted by countries other than Russia.

    Relevant parties have been contacted for comment; however, given the material public
    interest of the above concerns, we also welcome a substantive response from the Antarctic
    Treaty Secretariat.

    We will assume that there is no comment on these issues if we have not received a final
    response by 3pm Wednesday 20 October.

    We very much look forward to your feedback,

    Sincerely

    Tiara Walters
    Senior science journalist: Daily Maverick

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