Stakeholders in Ghana call for restraint in handling maritime dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast
Story by Gilbert Boyefio
The Ghanaian and Ivorian governments have been urged to continue their high powered talks over their maritime boundary disputes to avert any unnecessary tension between the two countries. This follows recent reports that officials at Ivory Coast’s state oil company, Petroci, has unveiled a controversial map that redraws the maritime border between the two nations, laying claim to much of Tullow Oil’s Jubilee field, Tweneboa, Enyenra and Owo discoveries, among others, plus the West Tano-1X find and several prospects.
According to Security Expert, Dr Kwesi Aning, of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, it is in the collective interest of the two nations to find amicable solution to the dispute through dialogue and diplomacy, noting that “Any other approach would not be in the interest of the parties involved.
Dr Aning pointed out that apart from the reputation of Ghana as a peaceful country and beacon of hope for Africa that stand to suffer by any militant approach, there are almost two million Ghanaians living in Ivory Coast who may also be affected.
He pointed out that both countries do not need this now as Ivory Coast is just coming out of a bloody post election conflict and the consequent handing over of their former president Laurent Gbagbo to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for trials. Whiles Ghana is preparing to go into another crucial election next year. “Notwithstanding the above, Ghana needs to negotiate from a position of strength while seeking peace and ensuring that its national interest is not trampled upon,” he quickly added.
To him despite the rhetoric and the possible navy skirmishes there is no immediate security threat to the people in the western region on whose land the oil find is. He consequently appealed to the media not to blow the issue out of proportion to create fear and chaos among the populace.
Supporting the call for the two governments to commit themselves to dialogue, Ebow Haizel-Ferguson, Secretary to the Ghana Oil and Gas Providers Association and a Westerner noted that any conflict between the two nations can have far reaching consequences, pointing out that “The Nzema people on whose land and sea the oil and gas activities are cited have relatives in Ivory Coast. They move in and out of both countries at will. So what implications are we talking about - brothers against brothers?”
He said the hopes and aspiration of Ghana's oil and gas is national. But the host communities are looking forward to improved lifestyle and therefore it is a big concern if this hopes and aspiration are interrupted by disputes among the two nations. He insisted that the joint boundary commission must continue to dialogue.
Sources close to the Ghana Maritime Authority, whose responsibility it is to man Ghana’s territorial waters, has also indicated the need to promote dialogue to address the dispute. To them the issue is very sensitive and therefore appealed to the media to be circumspect in their reportage in order not to compromise the country’s stand and thereby escalating the tension between the two countries.
Ivory Coast has publicly challenged its neighbour Ghana over title to offshore acreage hosting some of the region’s most prolific oil and gas fields.
According to Upstream reports west of its freshly claimed, new maritime boundary, Petroci has demarcated five blocks — CI-544, 543, 542, 541 and 540 — from shallow waters to the 3000-metre isobath, which are now available for bids.
Petroci is open to talks to negotiate this acreage as well as undisputed deep-water blocks CI-506, 507, 508, 509, 513, 514, 515, 516 and 517.
However, it may decide to organise a formal licensing round next year, according to a senior company official.
Seismic contractors contacted by Upstream could not see how Petroci could attract serious interest in the disputed acreage.
Ghana occupies a slither of land snaking along the coast between the Ivory Coast interior and the Atlantic Ocean and consequently Abidjan’s existing maritime border covers less by way of an exclusive economic zone than it might otherwise have accrued.
This situation has long rankled officials, who have watched as companies such as Tullow Oil, Anadarko and Kosmos Energy work to prove up billion-barrel discoveries across the disputed border.
The joint boundary commission has met regularly on the subject since Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouatarra came to power by ousting his predecessor, who had good relations with Ghana’s President John Atta Mills.
Mills opposed the use of force to bring Ouatarra to power and it is believed that this created enmity within Abidjan’s new administration, perhaps influencing its new belligerent stance on the maritime border.
The indigenous people in the region of the existing onshore border have common ethnicity, while French names abound in Ghana’s territory, such as Bonyere, originally a French town, where the Ghana National Gas Company plans to build gas processing infrastructure to develop associated gas from the Jubilee field and surrounding discoveries.
Earlier proposals by Ivory Coast to develop its own gas fields at nearby blocks CI-101 and 202 — Gazelle, Ibex, Eland and Ibis — and land the gas by pipeline on Ghana’s coast fell on stony ground. Ivory Coast now plans to develop its own gas processing infrastructure, ostensibly duplicating proposals advanced by Ghana, although most believe this move is simply political posturing ahead of a diplomatic solution to the maritime border impasse.
The Ghanaian and Ivorian governments have been urged to continue their high powered talks over their maritime boundary disputes to avert any unnecessary tension between the two countries. This follows recent reports that officials at Ivory Coast’s state oil company, Petroci, has unveiled a controversial map that redraws the maritime border between the two nations, laying claim to much of Tullow Oil’s Jubilee field, Tweneboa, Enyenra and Owo discoveries, among others, plus the West Tano-1X find and several prospects.
According to Security Expert, Dr Kwesi Aning, of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, it is in the collective interest of the two nations to find amicable solution to the dispute through dialogue and diplomacy, noting that “Any other approach would not be in the interest of the parties involved.
Dr Aning pointed out that apart from the reputation of Ghana as a peaceful country and beacon of hope for Africa that stand to suffer by any militant approach, there are almost two million Ghanaians living in Ivory Coast who may also be affected.
He pointed out that both countries do not need this now as Ivory Coast is just coming out of a bloody post election conflict and the consequent handing over of their former president Laurent Gbagbo to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for trials. Whiles Ghana is preparing to go into another crucial election next year. “Notwithstanding the above, Ghana needs to negotiate from a position of strength while seeking peace and ensuring that its national interest is not trampled upon,” he quickly added.
To him despite the rhetoric and the possible navy skirmishes there is no immediate security threat to the people in the western region on whose land the oil find is. He consequently appealed to the media not to blow the issue out of proportion to create fear and chaos among the populace.
Supporting the call for the two governments to commit themselves to dialogue, Ebow Haizel-Ferguson, Secretary to the Ghana Oil and Gas Providers Association and a Westerner noted that any conflict between the two nations can have far reaching consequences, pointing out that “The Nzema people on whose land and sea the oil and gas activities are cited have relatives in Ivory Coast. They move in and out of both countries at will. So what implications are we talking about - brothers against brothers?”
He said the hopes and aspiration of Ghana's oil and gas is national. But the host communities are looking forward to improved lifestyle and therefore it is a big concern if this hopes and aspiration are interrupted by disputes among the two nations. He insisted that the joint boundary commission must continue to dialogue.
Sources close to the Ghana Maritime Authority, whose responsibility it is to man Ghana’s territorial waters, has also indicated the need to promote dialogue to address the dispute. To them the issue is very sensitive and therefore appealed to the media to be circumspect in their reportage in order not to compromise the country’s stand and thereby escalating the tension between the two countries.
Ivory Coast has publicly challenged its neighbour Ghana over title to offshore acreage hosting some of the region’s most prolific oil and gas fields.
According to Upstream reports west of its freshly claimed, new maritime boundary, Petroci has demarcated five blocks — CI-544, 543, 542, 541 and 540 — from shallow waters to the 3000-metre isobath, which are now available for bids.
Petroci is open to talks to negotiate this acreage as well as undisputed deep-water blocks CI-506, 507, 508, 509, 513, 514, 515, 516 and 517.
However, it may decide to organise a formal licensing round next year, according to a senior company official.
Seismic contractors contacted by Upstream could not see how Petroci could attract serious interest in the disputed acreage.
Ghana occupies a slither of land snaking along the coast between the Ivory Coast interior and the Atlantic Ocean and consequently Abidjan’s existing maritime border covers less by way of an exclusive economic zone than it might otherwise have accrued.
This situation has long rankled officials, who have watched as companies such as Tullow Oil, Anadarko and Kosmos Energy work to prove up billion-barrel discoveries across the disputed border.
The joint boundary commission has met regularly on the subject since Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouatarra came to power by ousting his predecessor, who had good relations with Ghana’s President John Atta Mills.
Mills opposed the use of force to bring Ouatarra to power and it is believed that this created enmity within Abidjan’s new administration, perhaps influencing its new belligerent stance on the maritime border.
The indigenous people in the region of the existing onshore border have common ethnicity, while French names abound in Ghana’s territory, such as Bonyere, originally a French town, where the Ghana National Gas Company plans to build gas processing infrastructure to develop associated gas from the Jubilee field and surrounding discoveries.
Earlier proposals by Ivory Coast to develop its own gas fields at nearby blocks CI-101 and 202 — Gazelle, Ibex, Eland and Ibis — and land the gas by pipeline on Ghana’s coast fell on stony ground. Ivory Coast now plans to develop its own gas processing infrastructure, ostensibly duplicating proposals advanced by Ghana, although most believe this move is simply political posturing ahead of a diplomatic solution to the maritime border impasse.
Comments
Post a Comment