The international obligations of the Russian Federation relating to offshore oil and gas exploration and production in the Arctic

Abstract

As a petroleum - producing country with enormous offshore developments the Russian Federation faces and will face a threat of increasing pollution of the marine environment resulting from the offshore activities both in its area in the Arctic and on territories of other States. Therefore it is critical for Russia to participate in development of international and regional legal instruments, to have an effective domestic regime for the offshore industry and to ensure that it has fixed obligations on international level in order to avoid negative consequences. 1.1 Research question On the above mentioned background I pose the following research question: Are the international obligations of the Russian Federation relating to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production in the Arctic able to control this process and avoid negative consequences of these activities and is there a need to develop new treaties and join the existing once?