Sovereignty Issues

•        Each of the Arctic Ocean surrounding countries have their own exclusive control over very large highly prospective offshore Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) within which they can arrange and control their own national oil and gas developments. Thus far it can hardly be said that any individual country has adequately developed those Arctic resources.  Partially as a result mankind is facing increasing global energy insecurity and peril.  Therefore Arctic region governments do not have any legitimate technical, financial or moral claim to the exclusive development of any part of the Arctic Ocean Commons area, especially given the current global energy insecurity situation.  Any narrow nationalistic Arctic claim beyond the 200 mile EEZ has no moral or legal basis, especially given the general lack of energy development within each country’s own EEZ areas.

•        For the purposes of AOAG’s oil and gas development plan all national Arctic Ocean Commons territorial claims beyond each of the five country’s EEZ will merge and subsume. In return all five countries surrounding the Arctic Ocean will receive a to-be-agreed percentage share of the Arctic Ocean Commons oil and gas resource taxes and benefits. However, the ultimate issue of territorial sovereignty for other uses than oil and gas extraction will not intended to be laid to rest under this approach and is not addressed in AOAG’s Claim. 

•        Only a new global Private-Public Consortium, made up of some of the best Oil and Gas Companies, in consultation with Government Agencies and Environmental Groups can safely and quickly develop the Arctic Ocean Commons Oil and Gas resources in a safe and Arctic  manner.  The Arctic Consortium’s cooperative development concept has been developed in order to promote peace and a new era of prosperity and harmony among the Arctic nation’s peoples and at the same time provide much needed oil and gas to the world to reduce the emerging global energy emergency. 

•        AOAG’s plan is a blueprint for a more stable Arctic Ocean development order, promoting greater use and better management of the Arctic Ocean Common’s oil and gas resources and generating harmony and goodwill among surrounding States while providing much needed energy to the world. 

•        AOAG believes that it has a collective obligation and clearly the first right to safely develop the Arctic Ocean Commons oil and gas responsibly on behalf of the countries and all humanity. The Arctic Consortium has a Claim which is morally and technically superior to that of individual governments, individual corporations and the rest of the world. 

•        AOAG proposes a new cooperative multinational development structure, which will bring all of the affected and interested parties together along with the very best global oil and gas expertise and capital with the goal of Arctic  and equitable Arctic resource development for the benefit of all mankind. 

•        AOAG believes that this cooperative private-public partnership approach will serve as a model for any future resource developments in the Earth’s common areas and urges all governments, agencies, institutions and peoples to fully support this form of resource development especially at a time of increased global energy insecurity for the sake of all mankind.

•        The cooperative development regime which AOAG has established will fairly end sovereignty uncertainties in the Arctic region over oil and gas resources and thus enable the Arctic’s oil and gas resources to be promptly and safely developed for the benefit of all humanity, while protecting the environment with strict sound safety measures not generally available to individual governments and smaller corporate entities. 

•        Under an AOAG oil and gas development regime, the AOGC will establish regulations governing all phases of oil exploration and exploitation after careful consultation with the surrounding governments and agencies.

Thus AOAG regime is clearly the most viable, safe and fair system for development of the oil and gas resources of the Arctic region.  This is particularly apparent when the fragile environment and large capital pools required to safely develop the Arctic oil and gas resources are considered. In addition it is most important when the migratory nature of oil and gas are considered. Oil and gas pools often straddle both sides of a territorial boundary, enabling one party to extract oil from outside its delineated area. This causes disputes and can lead to wars, as was probably the case between Iraq and Kuwait. 

•        Joint exploration agreements under the AOAG regime will prevent border problems since all parties to the agreement will be funneling efforts toward a common purpose, which is to jointly help relieve some of the global energy shortfall and hence reduce the chance for energy wars by developing the earth’s Arctic Ocean Commons region’s oil and gas resources in a fair and responsible manner.

•        An added benefit of AOAG Whole-Arctic-Ocean-Commons regime is that it will greatly reduce narrow national incentives, which could easily be

Arctic for causing a political or environmental tragedy in the Arctic commons. The AOAG will ensure that oil and gas development and extraction will likely occur at a more safe and sustainable rate with a view towards maximizing long-term environmental stability and extraction operations than would be the case under fragmented national developments. The AOAG regime will be particularly beneficial under these circumstances since some national Arctic claims currently overlap creating potentially dangerous long drawn out disputes, which might never be resolved and time is of the essence in solving the global energy shortfall.