[ 2017-09-23 ]

Ghana wins maritime dispute case against Ivory Coast
The Special Chamber of the International Tribunal
of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), has ruled in favor
of Ghana in the three-year-long maritime dispute
between the country and Côte d’Ivoire.


The Chamber in a unanimous decision on Saturday
September 23, 2017, ruled that there has not been
any violation on the part of Ghana on Côte
d’Ivoire’s maritime boundary.

The Chamber rejected Côte d’Ivoire’s argument
that Ghana’s coastal lines were unstable.

It also noted that Ghana has not violated Côte
d’Ivoire’s sovereign rights with its oil
exploration in the disputed basin.

Justice Boualem Bouguetaia, President of the
Special Chamber in reading the judgment, accepted
Ghana’s argument of adoption of the
equidistance method of delineation of the maritime
boundary.

In consideration of the new boundary, the Chamber
determined that it starts from boundary 55 -200
nautical miles away, a position much closer to
what Ghana was arguing for.

Analysts say Ghana would now have to wait to see
how the final map looks, once the coordinates are
plotted in the sea using boundary pillar BP 55+ on
a common land boundary, as a starting point for
drawing the new equidistance line.

In 2014, Ghana took the case to ITLOS to dispel
claims it has encroached Cote d’Ivoire’s
marine borders as part of oil exploration
activities at Cape Three Points, off the shores of
the Western Region.

Ghana’s defense held that Cote d’Ivoire was
barred from demanding ownership to the disputed
area it had acknowledged that Ghana owned the
space without any qualms in the decades leading up
to the oil discovery.

The oral hearings for the dispute were concluded
in February 2017.

Ghana’s oil discovery

In 2007, Ghana discovered oil and gas in
commercial quantities, and this was followed by
Cote d’Ivoire staking its claim to portions of
the West Cape Three Points.

These claims were renewed in 2010 after Vanco, an
oil exploration and production company announced
the discovery of oil in the Dzata-1
deepwater-well.

Cote d’Ivoire petitioned the United Nations
asking for a completion of the demarcation of its
maritime boundary with Ghana, and Ghana responded
by setting up of the Ghana Boundary Commission.

This commission was tasked with the responsibility
of negotiating with Côte d’Ivoire towards
finding a lasting solution to the problem.

But this commission bore no fruit, and in
September 2014, Ghana dragged Cote d’Ivoire to
ITLOS after 10 failed negotiations.

ITLOS’s first ruling in 2015 placed a moratorium
on new projects, with old projects continuing
after Cote d’Ivoire filed for preliminary
measures and urged the tribunal to suspend all
activities on the disputed area until the
definitive determination of the case.

The moratorium prevented Tullow Oil from drilling
additional 13 wells.

Tullow thus drilled eleven [11] wells in
Ghana’s first oil field.

Source - citifmonline.com

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