A-G in Hamburg as hearing of Ghana/Cote d’Ivoire Boundary dispute begins

Europa

February 6, 2017 10:40 AM

The hearing of the maritime boundary dispute between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean will commence at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) from today (February 6, 2017) to February 16, 2017.

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The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Akuffo, is with a high-powered legal and technical team in Hamburg, Germany for the hearing of the merits in the maritime boundary dispute between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

The team arrived in Hamburg earlier last week for preparations towards a final legal showdown with the Ivorian legal and technical team, which is also in Hamburg.

The first and the second rounds of oral arguments will come off from today, February 6, to February 10, 2016 and February 13 to 16, 2017, respectively.

Ghana’s team includes officials from the Attorney-General’s Department, the Ministry of Energy, the Maritime Boundaries Secretariat, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Petroleum Commission and lawyers from Ghana and abroad.

The President of the Special Chamber constituted to deal with the dispute, Judge Boualem Bouguetaia, will preside over the hearing.

Other members of the panel hearing the case are judges Rüdiger Wolfrum, Germany, and Jin-Hyun Paik, the Republic of Korea.

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Ad hoc judges Thomas Mensah, Ghana, and Ronny Abraham, France, were selected by Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, respectively, according to the rules of the ITLOS.

Background

Ivory Coast is claiming ownership of the disputed TEN oil field, forcing Ghana to file a suit at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to ward off Ivory Coast from disputed oilfields.

It filed its suit based on Article 287 Annex VII of the 1982 UNCLOS.

Cote d’Ivoire in February 2015 filed for preliminary measures and urged the tribunal to suspend all activities on the disputed area until the definitive determination of the case, dubbed: “Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean.”

But the Special Chamber of the ITLOS on April 25, 2015 declined to suspend production activities in the disputed area with the explanation that “in the view of the Special Chamber, the suspension of ongoing activities conducted by Ghana in respect of which drilling has already taken place would entail the risk of considerable financial loss to Ghana, and its concessioners and could also pose a serious danger to the marine environment resulting, in particular, from the deterioration of equipment”.

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