UN Commission recognises Sea of Okhotsk enclave part of Russia

He said that the ministry has received a formal certificate from the UN Commission satisfying Russia's appeal to recognize the enclave in the Sea of Okhotsk part of the Russian shelf. This is an actually acknowledged fact and I can congratulate everyone, the minister said.

Answering an Itar-Tass correspondent's question, the minister stressed that the decision on the enclave is final and not subject to revision. Now the enclave is fully under Russia's jurisdiction, the minister said.

According to geologists' estimates, the total volume of oil and gas fields prospected in that area exceeds a billion tons.

In November 2013 the UN agreed with arguments presented by Russia that 52,000 square kilometers of the Sea of Okhotsk, which borders Japan, is part of the country's continental shelf. Russia will get exclusive rights to the area, described by the government as a "real Ali Baba's cave," that contains reserves of valuable minerals and other natural resources.

"This is in fact an accomplished event," Sergei Donskoy told reporters commenting on Friday's decision by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf which he said cannot be reversed.

The 1.6 million square kilometers of the Okhotsk Sea have been poorly explored so far, so the area holds tremendous potential.

Up to 40 percent of the newly integrated maritime territory could hold natural resources, Russia 24 TV channel cited Geology and Geophysics expert Vladimir Glotov as saying.

Seabed oil deposits situated next to the Russian port of Magadan in the Sea of Okhotsk could reach up to 3 billion barrels of hydrocarbons. The first research work on the prospective Magadan-2 and Magadan-3 offshore blocks were held last summer. The research data is now being processed in E&P laboratories.

The Sea of Okhotsk has traditionally been known for its offshore fishing. The sea is rich in various kinds of fish, shellfish and crabs. before the UN ruling, Russian fishermen did not have the right to fish the whole sea.

In the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, poachers from various countries, particularly from Asia, used the loophole that the Sea of Okhotsk is not Russia's internal sea to claim fishing rights in the area. Moscow had to distribute fishing quotas to prevent over-fishing of the sea. From now on, Russian fisherman will be able to increase fishing volumes, because now they have the exclusive right to work in the middle of the sea, an area previously used predominantly by foreign fishing vessels.

Moscow sent a request in 2001 for the entire continental shelf, including the Arctic shelf, which the UN rejected demanding more data and evidence that the enclave is the natural continuation of the Russian territory.

"This is the first step to our Arctic claim, which will be drafted in the near future," the minister said.

The recession of Arctic sea ice in recent years due to global climate change has led to increased international legal maneuvering over the rights to exploit the region's vast untapped hydrocarbon reserves.

Canada submitted in December a claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend its sovereignty to include the North Pole.

Russia was the first country to submit territorial claims to the commission in a bid to show that the Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges are extensions of its continental shelf. If approved, Russia would gain 1.2 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles) of Arctic territorial waters.

Voice of Russia, TASS, Interfax, RIA, RT, Panarmenian.net