TPT November 2007

From the Americas

In fact, that ‘flag’ seems already to have become a rather potent agent of change; or, at least, of the galvanic political activity that precedes it. And titanium has a long shelf life. Even in salt water. • Washington’s reluctance to submit to UN authority may complicate the position of the US in the matter of the Arctic oil reserves. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea limits the five nations on the Arctic Ocean – Russia, Norway, Canada, Denmark (by way of Greenland), and the US (by way of Alaska) – to exploitation of 200 miles of adjacent seabed. They have the option of claiming more territory if they can prove that their continental shelves are geographically linked to the floor of the Arctic, and thus go farther out into open sea. In 2001, Russia became the first of the five nations to file a claim, asserting that the underwater Lomonosov Ridge is not a chain of mountains in international waters but rather an extension of the continental shelf off Siberia. Investigation of the Russian claim continues. If the US holds itself aloof from this dispute mediated by the UN, its highly prized autonomy could cost it dear. In the increasingly fierce rivalry over the Arctic, it could find itself at a disadvantage – in numbers and in influence – to seafaring countries voluntarily conducting themselves under widely accepted international norms. The world’s largest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, has agreed to sell its Sparrows Point steel plant near Baltimore, Maryland, to a venture led by the metals distributor Esmark (Chicago Heights, Illinois). The US Justice Department, citing antitrust concerns, in February ordered the Dutch steel maker to sell Sparrows Point to preserve competition in the production of tin-plated steel. According to news reports 3 August, the Esmark-led bid was chosen over one from the Brazilian steel maker Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN). Founded in 2003, Esmark has grown by acquiring other steel companies and, in November 2006, edged out CSN to win control of the West Virginia steel maker Wheeling-Pittsburgh. According to E2 Acquisition Corp, the venture buying Sparrows point, its partners include an unspecified European steel maker and a South African company. Terms were not disclosed. Esmark will gain the only fully integrated US steel mill with direct access to the sea, enabling it to import raw materials more cheaply. With a rated capacity of about 3.9 million tons of steel products a year, Sparrows Point accounted for 17 per cent of Mittal’s North American output. • Mittal Steel USA is seeking permission to build a nearly 75-acre landfill for sludge from its mill on company property less than a mile from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a protected area on Lake Michigan maintained by the National Park Service. As reported by the Chicago Tribune (14 August), the landfill would store up to 1.8 million tons of sludge from past steel mill operations now stockpiled above ground on property along the lake, together with 150,000 to 400,000 tons of sludge per year from ongoing operations. Mittal officials said the material cannot be recovered and recycled. Steel In a forced sale, Mittal’s Sparrows Point will go to a metals distributor

International affairs

Who owns the Arctic? A frozen area heats up – and with it international rivalry over vast energy resources Some time ago this column noted the renewal of interest in the fabled Northwest Passage, the ice-bound Arctic Ocean route which defeated generations of explorers but seems likely to yield, within eight years, to the advance of global warming. The emphasis then was on the opening up to commercial navigation of the route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific across the top of North America. Ancient maps and crumpled treaties took on new importance. The competition was on for potential savings in time and expense to move freight between Asia and Europe. Now, another motivation has taken over. The Arctic holds an estimated one-quarter of the world’s untapped energy reserves, and Russia is actively pressing its long-held claim to a 463,000-mile parcel of it: about half the size of Western Europe. How actively? On 2 August, two Russian ships reached the North Pole after plowing their way through deep ice for more than a week. The Russian legislator and veteran polar explorer Artur Chilingarov descended 14,000ft in a mini-submarine and dropped a Russian tricolor cast in titanium onto the seabed. “It’s like putting a flag on the moon,” Mr Sergei Balyasnikov told the Associated Press, in a none-too-subtle jab at the United States. Mr Balyasnikov is a spokesman for the Moscow-based Arctic and Antarctic research institute that organized the expedition. Like the US, Canada was initially dismissive of Russia’s Arctic homesteading as “just a show” . The website of Canadian Television quoted the minister of foreign affairs, Peter Mackay, as saying, “Look, this isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say ‘We’re claiming this territory.’” Even so, and despite Mr Mackay’s assertion that Canadian claims in the Arctic are “well established” , Canada moved quickly to assert its presence in a scrum that increasingly recalled the Gold Rush of 1849 in the American Old West. Just days after the Russians staged their submersible performance at the North Pole, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a three-day visit to the region. Lest anyone mistake his purpose, it was clarified. “Our government,” said a spokesman for Mr Harper, “has an aggressive Arctic agenda.” The Canadian prime minister, under mounting domestic pressure to check Russia’s importunacy, had already announced plans to spend about C$3.1 billion (US$2.9 billion) on the construction of up to eight patrol vessels capable of breaking through Arctic ice. As reported in the Financial Times (London) on 8 August, Mr Harper was expected to name the site for a long-promised deepwater port in the region, as well as to reassert Canada’s claim over Hans Island, at the entrance to the Northwest Passage. Mr Mackay, the Canadian foreign affairs minister, had earlier declared that the Russians were “fooling themselves if they think dropping a flag on the ocean floor is going to change anything.” As does Denmark. As does Norway. As does the US.

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J uly /A ugust 2007 N ovember /D ecember 2007