TEN project “can move ahead” after maritime ruling - Tullow

British company Tullow has served notice its offshore oil and gas project TEN "can move ahead" after an international maritime tribunal ruled in a border dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast.

However, Tullow in a statement said it will await instructions from the Ghana government on implementing provisional measures ordered by the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, which ruled that Ghana could continue the $4.9 billion (3.2 billion pound) development, but not engage in new exploration.

According to ITLOS, Ghana can go ahead to explore oil despite the dispute between it and neighbours Ivory Coast.

However, the Tribunal ordered that: "(a) Ghana shall take all necessary steps to ensure that no new drilling either by Ghana or under its control takes place in the disputed area as defined in paragraph 60."

Cote d’Ivoire called for the cessation of all activities, including oil exploration on the disputed maritime boundary, until the hearing of the substantive case, which is set to be settled in 2018.

Legal and technical representatives from both countries battled it out at ITLOS’s Special Chamber in Hamburg, Germany, on March 29 and 30, 2015.

ITLOS in its ruling, Saturday said:

THE SPECIAL CHAMBER,

(1) Unanimously

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Prescribes, pending the final decision, the following provisional measures under article 290, paragraph 1, of the Convention:

(a) Ghana shall take all necessary steps to ensure that no new drilling either by Ghana or under its control takes place in the disputed area as defined in paragraph 60;

(b) Ghana shall take all necessary steps to prevent information resulting from past, ongoing or future exploration activities conducted by Ghana, or with its authorization, in the disputed area that is not already in the public domain from being used in any way whatsoever to the detriment of Côte d’Ivoire;


(c) Ghana shall carry out strict and continuous monitoring of all activities undertaken by Ghana or with its authorization in the disputed area with a view to ensuring the prevention of serious harm to the marine environment;

(d) The Parties shall take all necessary steps to prevent serious harm to the marine environment, including the continental shelf and its superjacent waters, in the disputed area and shall cooperate to that end;

(e) The Parties shall pursue cooperation and refrain from any unilateral action that might lead to aggravating the dispute.

(2) Unanimously

Decides that Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire shall each submit to the Special Chamber the initial report referred to in paragraph 105 not later than 25 May 2015, and authorizes the President of the Special Chamber, after that date, to request such information from the Parties as he may consider appropriate.

(3) Unanimously

Decides that each Party shall bear its own costs.

(signed)

Boualem BOUGUETAIA,

President of the Special Chamber

(signed)

Philippe GAUTIER,

Registrar