International Legal Security of Offshore Oil and Gas Installations within the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to assess the effectiveness of international legal means of preventing modern threats aimed at offshore oil and gas installations, and to find the optimal solution to eliminate the identified shortcomings. The stated goal determines two key tasks — an analysis of the applicable norms of international law and an analysis of the practice of their implementation. The first part of the paper discusses the development of the concept of security zones as the main international legal means ensuring the protection of installations within the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf. The second part examines the practice of states in enforcing laws and regulations aimed at organizing the safety of facilities in the context of the conclusions reached by international judicial authorities in the case of the Arctic Sunrise vessel. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that there is some insufficiency and inefficiency of security zones to prevent modern threats. As a solution to this problem, the author proposes to establish “warning zones”, i.e. an additional international legal means to ensure the safety of offshore oil and gas installations.