Informed by the ongoing dispute with Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana
will in the coming days open negotiations with her other eastern neighbors to
define its maritime boundaries as West Africa’s coastline becomes a huge
scramble for oil and gas concessions. To avoid disagreements over boundaries in
the future, the boundaries with Nigeria, Togo and Benin are to be demarcated. The
pre-emptive move was revealed after the Attorney General Marietta Brew
Appiah-Oppong announced the start of an arbitration with Cote d’Ivoire over the
disputed oil-rich C-100 territory. The territory holds about 2 billion barrels
of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, which Cote d’Ivoire is claiming
falls within their boundaries. Years of negotiations have failed to resolve the
dispute. Ghana remains confident of holding off the Ivorian claim when the two
countries begin arbitration proceedings under the UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea (UNCLOS).But once bitten, twice shy, Ghana now wants to ensure that
this dispute is not repeated. The oil-producing country, shares the Gulf of
Guinea with Togo, Benin and Nigeria to the east, and the Gambia, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Liberia to the west. Kwame Nfojo of
the Ghana Maritime Boundary Secretariat explains to Joy News' Fred Smith that
over the years not much attention has been paid to these boundaries. But with
economy-changing deposits of natural resources in the ocean beds, this is all
about to change. West Africa could be set for another wave of exploration
activity. In a Ghana National Petroleum Corporation briefing notes, it
states that “the Gulf of Guinea is proving to be one of the most prolific oil
and gas provinces in the world. In the last few years, a series of new,
world-class discoveries have been made, stepping out into deep water from
proven near shore oil provinces in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Equatorial
Guinea and Angola.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
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