500 
The United States is far in advance of the Soviet Union in offshore 
oil and gas technology. However, the Soviet Union, with total apparent 
oil and gas reserves two to three times that of the United States 
and a much smaller rate of domestic consumption, has determined 
to significantly accelerate the exploitation of its offshore deposits in 
an attempt to maintain its energy independence. The energy dependent 
United States, on the other hand, is currently assessing its policy 
toward offshore oil and gas production in light of the various impacts 
of such development on the coastal zone and the marine environment 
as well as taking into account overall energy considerations. 
SOVIET POSITIONS AT THE LAW OF THE SEA CONFERENCE REGARDING 
CONTINENTAL SHELVES 
In the Soviet view, their position on the continental shelves 
consitutes an improvement on the existing law of the sea. The areas 
of improvement that have emerged from the presentations of the 
Soviet delegation are the need to limit the territorial sea to 12 miles 
(the traditional Russian territorial sea) and the need to strictly define 
legal extent of the continental shelf. Maximum claims to the continen- 
tal shelf, under the Soviet proposal, would be to 500 meters in depth 
or 100 nautical miles in extent, whichever was greater.” 
The Soviet position is defined as: (1) the outer limit of the continen- 
tal shelf may be established by the coastal state within the 500 meter 
isobath. (2) In areas where the 500 meter isobath is situated at a 
distance less than 100 nautical miles measured from the baselines 
from which the territorial sea is measured, the outer limit of the 
continental shelf may be established by the coastal state by a line 
every point of which is at a distance from the nearest point of said 
baselines not exceeding 100 nautical miles. (3) In areas where there 
is no continental shelf, the coastal state may have the same rights 
in respect to the seabed as in respect to the continental shelf, within 
the limits provided for in paragraph (2).78 
Soviet reference to depth as the determining factor in claims to 
the continental shelf is ideally suited to take maximum advantage 
of their existing physical situation. The continental shelves of the 
U.S.S.R. cover an area of about 6 million square kilometers to a 
depth of 200 meters, the depth usually considered to mark the limit 
of sovereignty. To permit claims out to an additional 300 meters 
in depth, particularly in the shelf areas of the Arctic seas and the 
Sea of Okhotsk, would add to this an enormous additional area. Suc- 
cessful exploitation of these vast shelf areas would, in all probability, 
result in very substantial additions to Soviet oil and gas production. 
The Soviets do not as yet have the technology to exploit oil and 
gas reserves at these depths, but such deep water technology is cur- 
rently available in the West. The areas between 200 and 500 meters 
could remain to the Soviets as a reserve to be explored after the 
shallower shelves had been drilled. 
77 Janis, Mark W. and Daniel, Donald C. F. The U.S.S.R.: Ocean Use and Ocean Law. Occasional 
Paper No. 21, Law of the Sea Institute, University of Rhode Island, May 1974, p. 10. 
78 Ibid. 
