“Troubled Waters: Energy Security
as a Maritime Security”
Author: Donna J. Nincic*
in Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century: A Reference Handbook, ed. Gal
Luft and Anne Korin (Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger Security International, 2009)
*Professor and Director of the ABS School of Maritime Policy and Management at
the California Maritime Academy, California State University
LCDR Aminuddin Albek
Thesis
Two type of threats to energy security
• the threat of access to oil and natural gas supplies, and
• the threat to energy infrastructure, particularly energy
transportation infrastructure.
Since one-quarter to one-third of the world's oil and gas
reserves are believed to lie offshore, and approximately
two-thirds of the world's oil trade is transported by sea, the
issue of energy security is to a large extent one of maritime
security.
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Introduction
The maritime realm is fraught with conflict:
• piracy,
• terrorism,
• conflict over access to fisheries,
• disputes over territorial boundaries and the extent of
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
also poses:
• threats to the security of access to maritime energy
supplies, and the security of the maritime transportation
of energy resources.
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I. Security of Access:
Maritime Border Disputes
• One-quarter to one-third of oil and gas reserves are
believed to lie offshore, mostly on the continental shelf.
• Some significant reserves lie in areas of contested EEZs,
where in many cases neighboring nations have not yet
established mutually-agreed upon maritime boundaries.
• Disputes are common, and only an estimated 39 percent
of maritime boundaries are even partially resolved.
• Many of these involve disagreements over oil and natural
gas exploration, some of which have been settled
peacefully, while others remain a source of conflict even
armed conflict.
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I. Security of Access:
Maritime Border Disputes
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In the 1990s China and Vietnam began oil exploration in two overlapping
and disputed tracts of the South China Sea known as Wan An Bet and Tu
Chinh.
In 1994, China claimed Indonesia's Natuna islands, containing some of the
richest natural gas reserves in the world, as part of its historic territorial
waters.
In 2000, Surinamese military gunboats chased a floating oil exploration rig
owned by Canada's CGX Energy from an area disputed with Guyana.
In 2001, Iran deployed a warship and fighter planes against two research
vessels from Azerbaijan operating on behalf of British Petroleum, and sent
troops to its border with Azerbaijan.
In February 2005, Japanese destroyers chased away Chinese exploration
vessels in international waters that were too close to a possible natural gas
field (claimed by Japan) in the East China Sea.
In March 2005, Indonesia sent warships to an island disputed with Malaysia
to assert its claims to the oil rich region, and also dispatched F-16 fighters to
its border with Malaysia. Malaysia responded by dispatching warships of its
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own, resulting in several skirmishes
The Spratlys & the South China Sea
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•
•
In 1992, China claimed 95 percent of the South China
Sea as its territorial waters. This area extends up to
1,000 miles from the Chinese mainland, and includes
the Spratly, Paracel, and Senkaku island chains
which China also claimed as sovereign territory and
which are contested in varying degrees by six other
states: Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam,
Brunei, and Malaysia.
Overlapping claims have resulted in several military
incidents since 1974, when China invaded and
captured the Paracel islands from Vietnam. Between
1988 and 1998 there have been at least 10 armed
conflicts over the islands in the South China Sea.
In the early 1990s, China and Vietnam clashed on two
occasions. The first was over disputed oil drilling
rights, Vietnam accusing China of drilling in
Vietnamese waters. China retaliated by seizing some
20 Vietnamese cargo ships between June and
September 1992. In 1994, the two sides clashed
militarily over two disputed oil exploration blocks,
which the international community recognized as
belonging to Vietnam.
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The Spratlys & the South China Sea
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In 1995, China occupied Philippine-claimed
Mischief Reef. In the resulting military action,
the Chinese were evicted by the Philippine
Navy.
In 1996, the Chinese engaged in a 90-minute
gun battle with the Philippine Navy near
Campones Island.
In 1997 and 1998, the Philippine Navy drove off
various Chinese claimants to Scarborough
Shoal.
In Sep 2003, the disputing countries signed an
agreement to promote the mutual development
of resources in the disputed islands.
In March 2005, the Chinese, Philippine and
Vietnamese national oil companies signed a
joint agreement to conduct marine seismic
experiments for economic purposes.
Confidence-building measures have been
discussed, including joint research and
economic development of the disputed islands.
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The Arctic
• The U.S. Geological Survey
estimates that nearly one fourth
of global undiscovered oil and
natural gas reserves could be
found beneath the Arctic Ocean,
some of which may be as close
as 200 miles from the North Pole.
• The boundaries are hotly
contested: Russia, Denmark, the
United States and Canada all
have conflicting maritime claims
in the region, leading not only to
likely legal disputes, but to the
possibility of military assertion as
well.
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The Arctic
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Extent of its continental shelf: while Canada has yet to
map its continental shelf fully, its boundary claims are
widely expected to overlap those of the United States,
Russia and Denmark
Both Canada and Denmark claim Hans Island, which
separates Ellesmere Island from Greenland in the
Nares Strait (just north of the Northwest Passage)
Machias Island in the Gulf of Maine is claimed by both
Canada and the United States
The United States and Canada dispute the precise
location of their border in the productive fishing grounds
of the Georges Bank in the Atlantic Ocean
The delimitations of the Juan de Fuca Strait in Puget
Sound, and the Dixon Entrance to the Inside Passage,
is contested by Canada and the United States
The legal status of the Northwest Passage, which
Canada claims as internal sovereign waters, and the
United States asserts is an international strait.
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The Arctic
Military presence
• In 2006, noting recent reports
that U.S. nuclear submarines
passed beneath Canadian
waters without either notifying
or seeking permission from the
Canadian government.
• Canada has been patrolling
the Arctic region with a force of
1,500 Eskimo irregulars since
the early 2000s, and has
launched a satellite system
allowing for Arctic surveillance
as far as 1,000 miles offshore.
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II. Security of Transport: Threats to Oil and
Natural Gas Shipping
• Bab el-Mandeb at the entrance to the Red
Sea, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian
Gulf, and the Strait of Malacca between
Indonesia and Malaysia
• One-quarter of global trade passes through
Malacca each year; this includes half of all
East Asian seaborne oil trade, half of
China's, and two-thirds of global liquefied
natural gas shipments.
• Approximately three MBD of oil flow through
Bab el-Mandeb
• Some 90 percent of all Gulf oil amounting to
nearly 40 percent of the world's maritime oil
trade now passes through the Strait of
Hormuz each year.
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Piracy
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In 2006, 15 sailors were killed in pirate attacks, 188
were taken hostage, and 77 were kidnapped and held
for ransom.
From 1995 to 2006, over 350 sailors are reported to
have lost their lives in pirate attacks worldwide; 14
this has translated to roughly 30 sailors each year.
While the 240 attacks reported in 2006 are the lowest
number of attacks reported since 1998, and the 15
deaths in 2006 represent the lowest level of
casualties since 2002, 17 sailors lost their lives in
pirate attacks in the first two months of 2007.
The IMB estimates that maritime piracy costs
transport vessels between $13 and $15 billion a year
in losses in the waters between the Pacific and Indian
Ocean alone. Earlier economic estimates had placed
the annual global figure at approximately $16 billion.
Costs stem not only from stolen cargo and goods
(and, in some cases, from the theft of the ship itself)
but also from delays in port while the attack is
reported and investigated, and from increased
insurance rates as well.
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Piracy
http://www.diploweb.com/IMG/png/UNOSAT_Global_Piracy_Overview_1995-2013.png
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Terrorism
• In 2004 it was reported that Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist
group operating in Indonesia, was planning to seize an
oil tanker in the Straits of Malacca for use in a terror
attack. The hijacked ship would then be wired with
explosives and directed at other vessels, sailed towards a
port, or used to threaten the narrow and congested
Straits.
• The October 2002 capture of al-Nasheri led to the
discovery that al-Qaeda had developed a four-part
strategy to attack Western shipping interests: ramming
vessels in suicide attacks, blowing up medium-sized
ships near other vessels or at ports, attacking large
vessels such as supertankers from the air by using
explosive-laden small aircraft, and attacking vessels with
underwater demolition teams using limpet mines or with
suicide bombers.
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Terrorism
• The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has the
most sophisticated maritime capabilities of all
known terrorist organizations. The Sea Tigers (the
maritime arm of the LTTE) are capable of carrying
out attacks well offshore, and have had impressive
gains against the Sri Lankan Navy. Most of their
targets are Sri Lankan military vessels, or vessels
carrying troops and supplies for the Sri Lankan
government.
• On October 2001, the MV Silk Pride, an oil tanker
hired by the Sri Lankan government to carry oil and
other commodities to civilians in the northern part of
the country, was attacked by the LTTE.
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Terrorism
• The nightmare scenario is a
successful attack on an LNG
carrier, particularly one close to a
densely populated urban center or
an area of strategic importance.
Because of their size, security
experts consider LNG tankers to be
potential floating bombs. Natural
gas is highly pressurized and
cooled to a liquid state for
transport. In its liquefied state, it
can neither burn nor explode.
However, if a tanker spill or rupture
were to occur, the liquid could
return suddenly to its gaseous
state, which could then ignite and
burn.
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Conclusion
• Given the disputes and sources of conflict in the
maritime sphere, energy security should be firmly placed
within the context of maritime security.
• With the future of energy exploration lying largely in the
world's oceans, and with so many known and potential
oil and natural gas reserves lying in areas with disputed
maritime boundaries, conflict over access to these
resources is bound to continue.
• With so much of the world's energy supplies in transit on
the world's oceans, safe and secure transit is also a
maritime security issue.
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Discussion
With the increase of energy consumption, there is a
possibility for the increase of maritime energy sources
exploration on high seas (non-state territories). This
may also create maritime conflicts.
• Who will win the competition? How to rule?
• How should states respond to mitigate the impacts?
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