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Edward Omane Boamah

ACCRA — Ghana has filed an arbitration suit under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in a bid to resolve its maritime border dispute with Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana’s Minister of Communications Edward Omane Boamah told Reuters yesterday. The countries have never officially agreed on the boundary, and their maps of territorial waters overlap. Any settlement to the long-running dispute could smooth the way for oil and gas exploration in the zone.
“Our main goal is to have a peaceful settlement so that we can continue to maintain the good neighbourliness at all times,” Boamah said.

“The issue borders on Ghana’s commercial interest and some other private companies operating in the area.”
Cote d’Ivoire claimed in April 2013 that Ghana had encroached on a part of its maritime territory rich in hydrocarbons.

Each side has appointed a panel member to join three other independent members in an attempt to resolve the case peacefully and there have been several meetings, Boamah said.
Oil exploration in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea has accelerated since Ghana discovered the giant Jubilee oil and gas field in 2007 and brought it online in record time in late 2010.

Cote d’Ivoire, which drilled only a handful of exploration wells during a decade-long political crisis that ended in 2011, is now seeking to develop its potentially lucrative offshore oil and gas sector. — Reuters.