Posted on 07/06/2004 9:57:38 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
TOKYO -- Japan will launch a $27.5 million project this week to explore the East China Sea bed for natural gas, an official said Tuesday, an undertaking that would put Tokyo in direct competition with neighboring China for potential offshore gas deposits.
Japanese officials have grown increasingly worried that China's undersea drilling might draw gas from the Japanese side. China, which has conducted its own studies, has suggested that the two countries develop the area together, but Tokyo has refused.
Beginning Wednesday, the quasi-government Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. will use sonic waves and other methods to research the subseafloor structure along 19 miles of the disputed sea border, an official at Japan's Natural Resources and Energy Agency said.
The project, in an area northwest of Japan's southernmost island of Okinawa, will last three months, said the official, who refused to be identified.
The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea allows coastal countries to regulate catch and seabed resources in an economic zone extending 230 miles from their shores.
But Beijing and Tokyo, both of which signed the convention in 1996, have not agreed where their sea border lies.
The United Nations says it will decide on global offshore territorial claims by May 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...
PING
Resolving border disputes are one of the few useful and valid functions of the UN.
Not while the crooks are running the place.
They've actually had some successes. UN and it's associated agencies can be a mixed bag. UNESCO = useless, WHO = pretty good.
You don't really hear much about the successful border dispute resolution because they don't result in wars.
South China Sea is so small the officially allowed offshore claims overlap. You need some sort of non-state party to resolve the dispute.
“Contrary to some claims, the Law of the Sea Treaty provides no decision-making role for the United Nations."
-- Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN)
“…The Convention does not levy taxes or require any technology transfers.”
-- Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN)
***
PERU said coordination should go hand-in-hand with providing means for developing countries to fulfil their obligations, including capacity building and technology transfer.
--Delegates to the fifth meeting of the UN Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea
WEDNESDAY, 9 JUNE 2004
If they could just keep Michael Moore there they should be able to sustain their nation until Moore dies.
Former President William Jefferson Clinton told the United Nations he wanted to put the United States into a "web" of treaties to set the ground rules for "the emerging international system."
Its funny how there's this sudden spate of sea border dispute stories-- Its like they're trying to brainwash America to support the idea that we must have a law of the sea treaty to deal with all these border issues.
***
US trying to steal Canadian oil up north
Monday, July 05 2004 @ 11:02 AM MDT
Contributed by: N Say
Canada starts seabed mapping to claim underwater petroleum in Arctic
Last Updated Sat, 03 Jul 2004 23:01:33
YELLOWKNIFE - Canada is trying a new tactic in the 30-year-old dispute with the United States over the boundary under the Beaufort Sea.
By mapping the seabed using radar, the government will take a step towards establishing sovereignty under international law.
The 2004 budget allocated $51 million over 10 years to map the Arctic continental shelf.
"The data collected will lead to a formal submission under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and help secure Canada's sovereignty in the High Arctic," the budget said.
Canada claims the border under the Beaufort Sea runs straight from the Alaska-Northwest Territories border. The U.S. says it angles east from the shoreline.
At stake is a huge volume of sub-sea oil and gas.
The U.S. recently offered four development licences to American companies in the disputed area.
The Department of Foreign Affairs responded with a diplomatic note saying Canada rejects the U.S. effort to claim jurisdiction, a spokesperson said.
Written by CBC News Online staff
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php?story=20040704155830330
Gas (Methane) Hydrates -- A New Frontierconventional gas resources appear to be trapped beneath methane hydrate layers in ocean sediments. Recent mapping conducted by the USGS off North Carolina and South Carolina shows large accumulations of methane hydrates. A pair of relatively small areas, each about the size of the State of Rhode Island, shows intense concentrations of gas hydrates. USGS scientists estimate that these areas contain more than 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas, an amount representing more than 70 times the 1989 gas consumption of the United States... Because the gas is held in a crystal structure, gas molecules are more densely packed than in conventional or other unconventional gas traps. Gas-hydrate-cemented strata also act as seals for trapped free gas.
U.S. Geological Survey
That sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.
It is the same for the UN Treaty on Outer Space.
Good catch of an oxymoronic phrase.
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