The Norwegian and Canadian reactions were soon

Land resources are running out too, those of the sea are still poorly known. Marine basements may become the future field of exploration for the mineral or oil tankers.

And all the States of the world realizes. Since early 2009, requests for extension of the courts on the seabed are suddenly returned to the centre of global diplomatic concerns. "There was this year an avalanche of deposits of records of extension of the limits of the continental shelf", said Didier Ortolland, author of the "geopolitical Atlas of maritime spaces" (1). Not really a chance. "The Commission on the limits of the continental shelf - Office of the United Nations-a specified in 1999 that States had ratified the convention of Montego Bay in 1982 had a period of ten years to file their records," he said. The approach of the deadline, in May 2009, dozens of requests poured.

The Montego Bay convention provides for the possibility for the riparian countries to request an extension of their continental shelf beyond the exclusive economic zone, normally limited to 200 nautical miles from the coast. To do this, the texts are based on several criteria. One of them, so-called "Hedberg", provides that the claimed continental shelf may extend up to 60 nautical miles measured from the foot of the continental slope, or the more net break point of the slope. Another, so-called "Gardiner", is based on the thick sediments which demonstrates a geological continuity between the coast and the continental shelf. In all cases, these extension opportunities are limited to 350 nautical miles offshore, or for "plunging" tops, 100 miles measured from the contour (line of depth) of 2,500 metres. The stakes of the extension of the continental shelf of a State are many. "The interest based on hydrocarbon resources", said Didier Ortolland. The depletion of the known natural deposits encourages oil groups to turn to the seabed. Evidenced thus the recent race at the North Pole and the spectacular expedition of the Russian submarine plant in summer 2008, a flag at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, as a territorial claim of the maritime conquests of the era. The Norwegian and Canadian reactions were soon.

The lure of oil

Behind the deployment of means and its media coverage, there are of course resources oil, even difficult to estimate exactly, in the Barents Sea. The same vain arise in the Gulf of Guinea, the Gulf of Bengal and even in the Falklands, where seismic surveys would leave the possibility of new oil deposits. "To my knowledge, there is not even research beyond the 200 nautical mile, but the progress of exploration in deep water may let it consider term", says Didier Ortolland.

The France, for its part, has launched Extraplac, an ambitious program of expansion of its continental shelf. Through its overseas territories, the France has already second world exclusive economic zone. In 2004, the Secretariat-General of the sea rose records of extension to areas of the southern lands (Kerguelen, Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, Crozet), the meeting and the scattered islands, the land Adélie, New Caledonia, the West Indies, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna, Clipperton, Polynesia, Guyana and West of the Iroise. Some files are a claim jointly with other countries, as, for example, that of the Iroise Sea, involving the Ireland, the Spain and the United Kingdom.

The commission of the United Nations is currently in full review multiple applications and each other. A last session should be held from 7 to December 11.