The continental shelf extension

The United Nations Commission on limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS) has recently approved Pakistan’s claim for extension of outer limits of its continental shelf from its present limits of 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles, measured from base line of its coast and presently recognized as the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). As a result, Pakistan now enjoys exclusive exploratory and exploitation rights for minerals and hydrocarbons over 290,000 square kilometers of seabed or subsoil adjacent to its coast – which is second to the area of Pakistan’s biggest province Baluchistan.
For readers not familiar with nautical terms, “continental shelf” under UNCLOS is legally defined as the stretch of seabed adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs and over which it has have exclusive rights for exploitation and exploration of resources at and beneath the seabed in this area in accordance with relevant provisions of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
It goes to the credit of Ministry of Science and Technology, ably assisted by Pakistan Navy Hydrographers and scientists of National Institute of Oceanography that in 2009 it was able to submit some fairly complex technical data in the format and in details required by the UN Commission in spite of the fact that we lacked national resources such as deep sea survey vessels capable of sending probes deep beneath seabed to extract relevant information about possible existence of natural resources – and more importantly, as continuation and extension of those lying in our EEZ.
Even though the nature of such data is always highly sensitive, the Ministry had little option but to outsource the survey task which is ironic since foreign funding had been available for acquisition of a suitable vessel since 1990 and its procurement could have been possible well before the cut-off date for submission of data in 2009 to the UN but its purchase remained elusive. It is a longish story of utilizing foreign loans in a rush to acquire equipment which would have fallen well short to undertake the desired task. Science has moved on since then and state of the art technology is available at competitive prices.
Our neighbor India, on the other hand, is steadily enhancing its cutting edge deep-sea exploration capability through acquisition of vessels with an impressive array of instruments and modern on-board laboratory facilities leading to sea mining prowess. This indigenous capability of rigorous survey and scouting of the sea bed and an accurate analysis of the excavated material illustrates its determination to be a serious player in deep sea exploitation of sub-soil resources.
In 2012 India and Japan reached a strategic agreement for collaboration in exploration and processing of rare earths following which India began setting up a monazite processing plant in Orissa on the east coast, Monzite is a rare earth phosphate and is the second most common mineral used as rare earth ore for extraction of other precious metals. These efforts are likely to gather momentum as and when India’s claim for extension in the continental shelf is approved by CLCS. India has claimed large swaths of sea to make some of its neighbors uncomfortable.
On the diplomatic front, India is trying to counter China’s Silk Road Economic Belt strategy covering countries both along the sea path and the land route with the idea of what it called the ‘Cotton Road’ in a recently held three days international conference themed on: ‘India, Indian Ocean: Renewing the Maritime Trade and Civilizational Linkages’. Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit to some Indian Ocean Region countries can be seen in that context.
As global appetite for minerals and rare metals grows, so will the competition intensify for its exploration and extraction of poly-metallic nodules (small rocks containing metal ore – manganese, copper, cobalt, etc) and for hydrothermal deposits. Discovery in scientific world that poly-metallic sulphides – essentially a source of precious metals like gold, silver and zinc – also contain valuable rare metals commonly used in present day high value gadgetry and electronic devices, has spurred nations to establish or upgrade their under-sea mineral exploration and extraction capabilities. Pakistan should not lag behind in these global trends.
If we are to benefit from our EEZ and this latest extension to our continental shelf, we should urgently acquire suitable where-withal to survey and ascertain what lies beneath the sea and in what quantities where UN has granted as jurisdiction for exploration and exploitation. While in the past, it may have been a constraint to outsource the survey to foreign expertise since the data had to be submitted to the world body within certain time frame, any further outsourcing would be against our national interest and should be avoided at all costs.
Admittedly, Pakistan’s current expertise in deep-sea exploration is meager but a beginning has to be made. In its search for partners to bolster its efforts towards maximizing benefits from EEZ and beyond, Pakistan could take advantage of its special relationship with China which has made impressive progress in this field with a sophisticated program and presently controls nearly 95% of rare earths.
In 2011, the International Sea Bed Authority (ISBA) allowed China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA), to undertake exploration in a 10,000 square kilometers area in South-Western Indian Ocean off Madagascar and not far from our recently extended continental shelf. This is in addition to 75,000 kilometers area in the Western Pacific for a fifteen years contract period. With Gwadar as a functional port and Pak-China economic corridor getting global importance, the environments are favorable to initiate serious efforts to establish our economic footprint in the Indian Ocean.
The extension of our continental shelf to 350 nautical miles from our coast has rightly been hailed as a land mark development by the President of Pakistan during his Pakistan Day parade speech. But this addition to our sea space must be realistically tempered through a comprehensive strategic scientific plan to explore these resources to bolster national economy.
Mere acceptance of our claim by UN will not get us far unless we have a focused plan to get to the treasure beneath the seabed nearly as vast as Baluchistan if it has to make a difference to our economy and well-being of the people. Deep-sea exploration and mining should be officially recognized as the future frontiers of scientific research and a vision for broader domain of ‘rare earths’ in EEZ and extended continental shelf chalked out at the earliest.