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Offshore Claims and Problems in the North Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

Richard Young
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Extract

The possible presence of very large petroleum and natural gas reserves in the area beneath the North Sea is currently the subject of intense investigation. If confirmed, as seems likely in at least some localities, this occurrence will raise legal problems of considerable interest and complexity. For the North Sea is not merely an oilfield covered by water: for centuries it has been one of the world's major fishery regions and the avenue to and from the world's busiest seaports. Thus all three of the present principal uses of the sea—fishing, navigation, and the exploitation of submarine resources—promise to meet for the first time on a large scale in an area where all are of major importance. The process of reconciling the various interests at stake will provide the first thoroughgoing test of the adequacy and acceptability of the general principles laid down in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf and should add greatly to the practice and precedents available in this developing branch of the law. In the present article an attempt is made to review some of the geographical and economic considerations involved in the North Sea situation, to note some of the technical and legal developments that have already taken place, and to consider these elements in the light of the various interests and legal principles concerned.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 1965 , pp. 505 - 522
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1965

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References

1 The limits here given are substantially the same as those specified in Art. 4 of the Convention of May 6, 1882, for Regulating the Police of the North Sea Fisheries, 73 Brit, and For. State Papers 39.

2 Shepard, Submarine Geology 137-139 (1948), and The Earth Beneath the Sea 75-76, 81 (1959); Alexander, Offshore Geography of Northwestern Europe 21-25 (1963).

3 This limit is, of course, only a convenient approximation, and the actual shelf edge may lie either above or below it. 1 Shalowitz, Shore and Sea Boundaries 246, note (1962).

4 Shepard, op. cit. 171-172 (1948). Elsewhere Professor Shepard has pointed out that it is an error to think of continental shelves as uniformly flat and even; they may include areas “ a s hilly as southern New England, which no one would refer to as flat.“ The Earth Beneath the Sea 70 (1959).

5 U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea (1958) (referred to hereafter as 1958 Geneva Conference), Preparatory Doc. No. 2, “Scientific Considerations Relating to the Continental Shelf,” 1 Official Records 39, at pars. 20, 34 (U.N. Doc. A/CONF.13/37).\

6 Reed, “ Europe West of the U.S.S.B., ” in Pratt and Good (eds.), World Geography of Petroleum 240, 244-245 (1950).

7 Ibid. 245. Production in West Germany in 1950 and 1960 was reported to be respectively 1,119,000 and 5,530,000 metric tons; in The Netherlands, 705,000 and 1,918,000 tons; and in Britain, 46,000 and 87,000 tons. 1964-1965 Statesman 's Tear-Book xxvii. According to the same source, TJ. S. production in the same years was 271,081,000 and 347,121,000 tons, respectively.

8 Fulton, Sovereignty of the Sea 701-711, 735-740 (1911).

9 Leonard, International Regulation of Fisheries 42-48 (1944). The postwar agreements referred to include the Convention for the Regulation of the Meshes of Fishing Nets and the Size Limits of Fish, signed at London April 5, 1946, 231 U.N. Treaty Series 200, and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Convention, signed at London Jan. 24, 1959, Cmnd. 659. The most recent multilateral instrument relating,inter alia, to the North Sea fishery is the Convention annexed to the Final Act of the European Fisheries Conference held at London Dec. 3, 1963-March 2, 1964, 58 A.J.I.L. 1070 (1964); 3 Int. Legal Materials 476 (1964). A useful review of conservation efforts in the region is Lucas, “ Regulation of North Sea Fisheries under the Convention of 1946,” in Papers Presented at the International Technical Conference on Conservation of Living Resources of the Sea (Borne, 1955) 167 (TJ.N. Doc. A/CONF.10/7).

10 1964-1965 Statesman 's Year-Book 1262; Fortune Magazine, August, 1964, p. 148.

11 The Economist, May 16, 1964, p. 746.

12 L.E.J. Brouwer at the 20th International Geographical Congress (London, July, 1964), cited in World Petroleum, November, 1964, pp. 35-36.

13 World Petroleum, March, 1964, p. 29.

14 1964-1965 Statesman 's Year-Book 1261; World Petroleum, June, 1964, p. 88.

15 World Petroleum, November, 1964, p. 36.

16 U.N. Monthly Chronicle, June, 1964, p. 114. The texts of the Geneva Conventions are in 1958 Geneva Conference, 2 Official Records 132-143; and in 52 A.J.I.L. 834- 861 (1958).

17 1964 c. 29; 58 A.J.I.L. 1085 (1964); 3 Int. Legal Materials 564 (1964). See also the comment by Samuels, “ The Continental Shelf Act, 1964,” in British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Developments in the Law of the Sea 1958-1964 at p. 155 (Special Pub. No. 6, 1965).

18 As part of the general updating of its offshore policies in the light of developments since 1958, the United Kingdom on July 31, 1964, also enacted the Fisheries Limits Act, 1964 c. 72; 3 Int. Legal Materials 1067 (1964). The Act provides for an exclusive fishing zone six miles in width and also for an outer zone of an additional six miles in which foreign fishing may be permitted under British supervision and pursuant to special arrangements.

19 24 & 25 Geo. 5, c. 36. Coal is assigned to the National Coal Board, but the Board cannot work any offshore coal deposit covered by the Act without the consent of the Minister of Power.

20 Continental Shelf (Designation of Areas) Order 1964, S.I. 1964 No. 697, 3 Int. Legal Materials 640 (1964).

21 Although the United Kingdom has maintained its adherence to a three-mile territorial limit, it may be noted that its adoption of the baselines specified in the Territorial Sea Convention has had the effect of extending its territorial sea in certain localities beyond that formerly claimed. This is the case, for example, off Moray Pirth, the Wash, the Thames estuary, the Bristol Channel, and most strikingly around the Hebrides. See the British Admiralty chart reproduced in 3 Int. Legal Materials 494- 495 (1964).

22 Petroleum (Production) (Continental Shelf and Territorial Sea) Regulations 1964, S.I. 1964 No. 708, 3 Int. Legal Materials 621 (1964).

23 Regulations, cited note 22 above, Schedule 2, Clause 17; Schedule 3, Clause 10.

24 The .Economist, Sept. 19, 1964, pp. 1141-1142; World Petroleum, November, 1964, pp. 32-34.

25 The precise location was reported to be latitude 55° 3.2’ N., longitude 2° 39.8’ E. World Petroleum, February, 1965, p. 57; New York Times, April 3, 1965.

26 Act of March 24, 1961. The Act provided for the possibility of special arrangements within the twelve-mile zone for the fishing vessels of other states. Such arrangements have been made, for example, with the United Kingdom on a rciprocal basis by agreements of 1960 and 1964. For texts, see 57 A.J.I.L. 490 (1963), 4 Int. Legal Materials 163 (1965).

27 1958 Geneva Conference, 6 Official Records 48.

28 Law on the Exploration and Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the Seabed, Law No. 12, June 21, 1963, Norway, [1963] Norsk Lovtidend 342. For English translations of this act and some of the other Norwegian materials cited herein, the writer is indebted to Mr. Jens Evensen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo. All comment thereon is, however, the writer's own.

29 Royal Decree of May 15, 1964, [1964] Norsk Lovtidend 232.

30 Royal Decree No. 259, June 7, 1963, [1963] Lovtidende for Kongeriget Denmark, A, p. 457.

31 An English translation of the decree appears in 1 Petroleum Legislation, “Denmark,“ App. III.

32 World Petroleum, March, 1964, p. 31;ibid., November, 1964, p. 36.

33 Denmark, Official Notice No. 497 of Dec. 21, 1923; French translation in United Nations, Laws and Regulations on the Regime of the Territorial Sea 9-10 (1957).

34 The German text of the proclamation appears in Bundesgesetzblatt II, 1964, p. 104; 11 Archiv des Völkerreehts 488 (1964).

35 Such discussions with Denmark were expected in early 1965 to commence shortly. World Petroleum, February, 1965, p. 42.

36 Von Münch, ‘ ‘ Die Ausnutzung des Festlandsockels von der deutschen Nordseektiste,'' 11 Archiv des Vülkerreehts 393 (1964). The writer is indebted to Messrs. Herbert Krumbein and Donald Gurlitz of the University of Michigan Law School for aid on the German materials cited here and in note 34.

37 As early as 1868 the British Government conceded this point with reference to German claims to exclusive fishery rights oft the German North Sea coast. Substantially the same rule was incorporated in general terms in Art. 2 of the North Sea Fisheries Convention of 1882. Fulton, Sovereignty of the Sea 652 (1911).

38 Examples of these technical problems are given in Alexander, Offshore Geography of Northwestern Europe 47-49 (1963).

39 An account of the dispute, with map, is givenibid. 85-87.

40 1 Petroleum Legislation, “Germany,” App. I; World Petroleum, October, 1964, p. 92.

41 New York Times, Dec.2, 1964.

42 Ibid.; World Petroleum, November, 1964, p. 37, and April, 1965, p. 48 BE.

43 A discussion of the problems, with map, appears in Alexander,op. cit. 83-85 (1963).

44 An English translation of the bill appears in 1 Petroleum Legislation, “Netherlands,“ App. I.

45 New York Times, Feb. 9, 1964; World Petroleum, November, 1964, p. 37.

46 New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 29, 1963; World Petroleum, November, 1964, pp. 36-37.

47 Table of claims prepared in the U. S. Department of State, February, 1964, in 3 Int. Legal Materials 551-552 (1964); European Fisheries Convention, opened for signature at London March 9, 1964,ibid. 476 ff., and 58 A.J.I.L. 1070 (1964).

48 A valuable discussion of problems in offshore delimitation is in Padwa, ‘ ‘ Submarine Boundaries,” 9 Int. and Comp. Law Q. 628 (1960).

49 Maps giving an indication of geometrical median lines in the North Sea appear in World Petroleum, November, 1964, p. 35; and in Alexander, Offshore Geography of Northwestern Europe 22 (1963). A table giving shelf areas appertaining to Northwestern European states appears inibid. 76, but the reader should be aware that the figures there given are not confined to the North Sea and also exclude areas more than 200 meters in depth, such as the Norwegian Trough.

50 Petroleum ^Regulations 1964, note 22 above, Schedule 2, Clause 19.

51 McDougal and Burke, Public Order of the Oceans 721 (1962).

52 Information supplied by the International Oceanographic Foundation at the University of Miami in response to an inquiry on behalf of the Alaska Fishermen's Union, printed in Sea Secrets, January, 1965, pp. 6-7.

53 Radar is alleged to be of limited value in navigating through or past a cluster of installations because it often fails to show individual installations of a tight cluster with sufficient precision.

54 The information in this paragraph regarding the Gulf of Mexico is derived largely from Calvert, “Navigation and Offshore Oil,” World Petroleum, November, 1964, pp. 44-46.

55 McDougal and Burke, Public Order of the Oceans 721 (1962).

56 The text of the Annex appears in 58 A.J.I.L. 1075 (1964) and 3 Int. Legal Materials 484-488 (1964).