Ghana
and Cote d’Ivoire are claiming ownership of a territory in the maritime
border of the two countries which experts say holds about two billion
barrels of oil reserves, as well as 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural
gas.
Ghana was the first to strike oil in the disputed C100 area along the
Tano Basin and believed it had exclusive rights over that maritime
boundary until April this year when Cote d’Ivoire also announced that it
had struck oil in a block off its shore and adjacent Ghana’s Jubilee
Field.
Although the Ghana government has, since the dispute broke out, sent a
team to hold talks with the Ivorian authorities, indications are that
Ghana’s neighbours have renewed their claim to the territory.
Disclosing this renewed activity to a section of the media on Tuesday,
Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources,
admitted that the dispute had arisen because Ghana had delimited its
land boundary with Cote d’Ivoire but not its maritime boundary with its
neighbour.
In a move considered a positive and major step towards resolving the
issue, Ghanaian and Ivorian officials who met again in Accra Tuesday
agreed to send a joint team to the area this month to clearly demarcate
the boundaries.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini led
Ghana’s team, while Cote d’Ivoire’s Ambassador to Ghana, Bernard
Ehui-Kotouna led the Ivorian side in the deliberations.
Discounting that the dispute between the two countries could get to a
head, Dr Steve Manteaw, an expert in oil issues and Chairman of the
Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, described the rumpus between
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire over their maritime boundary as a small dispute
that did not have the propensity to escalate in view of the fact that
the two had very good relations.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic yesterday on the lingering dispute, Dr
Manteaw said, “There are international practices that help address
situations of this nature and then cross-border disputes over rights to
acreages are best resolved through joint development agreements.”
“So our best hope, if we are unable to have a settlement that will
enable us to recognise the boundary between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire,
will be to settle for an agreement that will develop acreages in the
disputed area jointly between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire,” he said.
He said when that was done, proceeds would be shared between the two
countries, so that there would be a joint management team between Ghana
and Cote d’Ivoire and then the companies operating would be reporting to
a joint management team.
Dr Manteaw, however, admitted that in other places such disputes had
been the source of conflicts. “And I know the conflict in The
Sudan is largely in respect of Abyei,” he said.
According to him, “the dispute between Southern Sudan and The Sudan had
to do with who had the right to appropriate the benefit of the oil field
in Abyei, but in the case of Ghana, the relationship between Ghana and
Cote d’Ivoire is not one that is strained – we do have good relations”.
Meanwhile, KOSMOS Energy Ghana, one of the companies allocated blocks in
the disputed area, says it is not distracted by the raging maritime
border dispute between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, as the company continues
to develop some of its oil blocks.
Source: Daily Graphic
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