Naval mines and the Black Sea: Beyond the war in Ukraine

While the violation of international laws such as the chemical weapon convention, international humanitarian laws and the killings of prisoners of war (POW) continues to dominate the headlines in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, little attention has been given to the naval mines discovered by the Turkish government in the Black Sea. The Black Sea which is a major shipping route to transmit goods globally is geographically connected through oceans by the Mediterranean Sea through Istanbul, sea of Azov, and Gibraltar Straits and it is bordered by Ukraine to the North, Georgia to the East, Turkey to the South, Russia to the North – East and Bulgaria and Romania to the West.

Besides being important for global trade and sustaining the United Nations’ agenda on food sufficiency, it is also strategic for states to maintain political control, which is part of the reason for Russia’s targeting of Odessa and Mauripol cities of Ukraine which is closer to the black sea and further invading, in 2008, the disputed Georgian territory of Abkhazia which is closer to the eastern coast of the Black sea.

The Black Sea plays an integral part in the connection between Asia and Europe. In addition to sea ports and fishing, key activities include hydrocarbons exploration for oil and natural gas, and tourism. According to NATO, the Black Sea is a strategic corridor that provides smuggling channels for moving legal and illegal goods including drugs, radioactive materials, and counterfeit goods that can be used to finance terrorism. According to an International Transport Workers’ Federation 2013 study, there were at least 30 operating merchant seaports in the Black Sea (including at least 12 in Ukraine).There were also around 2,400 commercial vessels operating in the Black Sea.

The Turkish commercial fishing fleet catches around 300,000 tons of anchovies per year. The fishery is carried out mainly in winter, and the highest portion of the stock is caught between November and December. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union started offshore drilling for petroleum in the sea’s western portion (adjoining Ukraine’s coast). Independent Ukraine continued and intensified that effort within its exclusive economic zone, inviting major international oil companies for exploration. Discovery of the new, massive oilfields in the area stimulated an influx of foreign investments. It also provoked a short-term peaceful territorial dispute with Romania which was resolved in 2011 by an international court redefining the exclusive economic zones between the two countries.

The Black Sea contains oil and natural gas resources but exploration in the sea is incomplete. As of 2017, 20 wells are in place. Throughout much of its existence, the Black Sea has had significant oil and gas-forming potential because of significant inflows of sediment and nutrient-rich waters. However, this varies geographically. For example, prospects are poorer off the coast of Bulgaria because of the large influx of sediment from the Danube which obscured sunlight and diluted organic-rich sediments. Many of the discoveries to date have taken place offshore of Romania in the Western Black Sea and only a few discoveries have been made in the Eastern Black Sea.

During the Eocene, the Paratethys Ocean was partially isolated and sea levels fell. During this time sand shed off the rising Balkanide, Pontide and Caucasus mountains trapped organic material in the Maykop Suite of rocks through the Oligocene and early Miocene. Natural gas appears in rocks deposited in the Miocene and Pliocene by the paleo-Dnieper and pale-Dniester rivers, or in deep-water Oligocene-age rocks. Serious exploration began in 1999 with two deep-water wells, Limanköy-1 and Limanköy-2, drilled in Turkish waters. Then in 2010, Sinop-1 targeted carbonate reservoirs potentially charged from the nearby Maykop Suite on the Andrusov Ridge, but the well-struck only Cretaceous volcanic rocks. Yassihöyük-1 encountered similar problems. Other Turkish wells, Sürmene-1 and Sile-1 drilled in the Eastern Black Sea in 2011 and 2015 respectively tested four-way closures above Cretaceous volcanoes, with no results in either case. A different Turkish well, Kastamonu-1 drilled in 2011 did successfully find thermogenic gas in Pliocene and Miocene shale-cored anticlines in the Western Black Sea. A year later in 2012, Romania drilled Domino-1 which struck gas prompting the drilling of other wells in the Neptun Deep. In 2016, the Bulgarian well Polshkov-1 targeted Maykop Suite sandstones in the Polshkov High and Russia is in the process of drilling Jurassic carbonates on the Shatsky Ridge as of 2018.

In August 2020, Turkey found 320 billion cubic metres (11 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas in the biggest ever discovery in the Black Sea, and hoped to begin production in the Sakarya Gas Field by 2023. The sector is near where Romania has also found gas reserves.

However, the landmines discovered by the Turkish government in its border in the Black Sea exposes ships to wreckage and seafarers, sailors and crew members and fishermen to death. By implication, it can lead to global shortage of supply of goods which will influence skyrocketing inflation and astronomical increase in the price of commodities. In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the launching of cruise missiles by the Russian military through the Black Sea directly to Lviv in Ukraine has had a devastating environmental effect, leading to ecological disasters on the surroundings of those areas. Constant missile testing in the sea hampers marine wildlife and safe marine environment due to the impact of high decibel volume from missile testing which badly affects fish species, whales, porcupines and dolphins in the sea.

Ukraine and Russia have continued to exchange words over the planted mines in the Black Sea. Both countries accuse each other of planting the mines as a means of annihilating their counterpart’s military ships. All of these bring to the forefront the need to review the legality given to military activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) as the international law of the sea does not recognise these measures in the protection of terminal navigation straits.

Olajide is of the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife, Osun State.

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