Extension of Argentina’s Continental Shelf and Maritime Boundaries

On March 11, 2016, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Argentine proposal regarding the outer limits of its continental shelf.

In order to understand this decision, one must look back to the origins of the body responsible for drawing up the Argentine proposal, the Argentine Committee on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf, which began its work back in 1996. To this end, a coordinated effort was organized between the public sector, universities, NGOs, Argentina’s National Council on Scientific and Technical Investigation (CONICET), and various technical and research agencies. In addition, the Committee was assisted by a number of different professionals, including geologists, scientists, engineers and technicians.

The purpose of this research program was to determine the natural extension of Argentine territory beyond 200 nautical miles. The program’s results were the groundwork for the claim raised by Argentina in 2009. This claim was based on section 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which set the conditions under which a coastal state may fix the outer limits of its Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.

In 2012, the CLCS began its assessment of the Argentine presentation and a draft resolution was prepared. In 2015, various debates were conducted until a final resolution was unanimously approved in 2016.

This decision represents an expansion of 1,700,000 square kilometers for Argentina, which translates into an increase of 35% of Argentina’s territorial rights over its continental shelf and seabed.

As a result, exclusive rights to the exploitation of resources in the extended continental shelf were obtained. These include mineral, hydrocarbon and sedentary maritime species resources in an area of great strategic, economic and political importance which the South Atlantic is by definition.

The Argentine presentation also included the areas of the Malvinas/Falkland, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, and the incorporation of the Antarctic continental shelf. The CLCS, however, did not address these issues, stating that it would not do so until such time as the existing sovereignty disputes between Argentina and the United Kingdom were resolved or as long as the Antarctic Treaty System is in force.