The National
Ocean Industries
and the Law of the
Sea Treaty
Randall Luthi
NOIA President
A Tradition of Service
NOIA represents the full spectrum of U.S.
businesses that produce energy from the
offshore
What are ocean jurisdictions?
Governance: Who Owns the Oceans?
Expanded EEZ’s possible under provisions of the UN
Convention on the Law of the Sea
Governance: Who Owns the Oceans?
Accession to the Law of the Sea Treaty will increase
America’s ocean jurisdiction.
Why is accession to the Law of the
Sea Treaty in the best interests of
ocean industries?
• Because there are ever more commercial
uses for the deep water.
• Because technology allows us to operate
in places we’ve never been before
• Because more ocean users will inevitably
lead to greater multiple-use conflicts
unless the rules are clearly delineated
International Shipping: Major Trade Routes
International Shipping: New Polar Trade Routes?
Arctic ice melt is
opening up the
Northwest Passage to
potential commercial
sea traffic.
(This satellite view
from above the North
Pole illustrates where
the routes would
travel.)
Commercial Fishing
(Source: Oceana
– blue dots
represent sea
turtle mortality)
Offshore Oil & Gas: Production Platforms
are now able to operate farther and farther
from shore
Offshore Oil & Gas: Pipelines
Gulf of
Mexico
Pipeline
Network
Offshore Wind Power:
Near-Shore and/or Deepwater
Wind
turbines
could use oil
& gas
platform
technology
to locate in
ever-deeper
water locales
Offshore Tidal Power
UK-Based Marine Current Turbines
Marine Current Turbines
300 kW SeaFlow
(fully operational
since May 2003)
Marine Current Turbines
1.2 MW SeaGen
(single unit to be installed 2006)
Offshore Wave Power
Offshore Wave Energy Resources in U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone
Southern AK
1,280 TWh/yr
WA OR CA
440 TWh/yr
ME NH MA RI NY NJ
120 TWh/yr
Northern HI
390 TWh/yr
Total annual flux into all regions
with avg. wave power density
>10 kW/m is 2,230 TWh/year
Offshore Aquaculture
Aquaculture moves from near-shore to open ocean
Aquapod is one of many
free-floating fish pens
that might soon ply the
open ocean, propelled
only by currents and
tracked by GPS.
Subsea Telecommunications Cables
Methane Hydrates
Methane
Hydrates are
Located All Along
the Continental
Margins
The U.S. alone
may have
enough methane
hydrates in its
waters to support
2,000 years of
energy
consumption at
current rates of
use.
Deep Seabed Mining
United States no
longer has any deep
sea mining
companies
domestically:
Accession to the Law
of the Sea Treaty
could reverse that.
Offshore
Biopharmaceuticals
An increasing array of
pharmaceuticals are being
derived from marine sources.
The National
Ocean Industries
and the Law of the
Sea Treaty
Randall Luthi
NOIA President