Ghana has opened its second and final round of arguments at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany, and is reproaching Cote d’Ivoire for deliberately turning a blind eye to Ghana’s erudite legal arguments.
According to Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire stuck to its old arguments last week because it did not have any evidence to back its claims that Ghana had moved into Cote d’Ivoire’s maritime space.
Addressing the Special Chamber hearing the dispute concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana’s lead international lawyer, Professor Philippe Sands, said: “Our friends offer you a cloud of smoke and a few lines: bisecting lines, regional problems, unequal access to resources and so on.
“We have noticed — as have you, certainly — the many points on which they have remained, for the most part, silent,” he said, stressing that “in particular they have found nothing to tell you about Côte d’Ivoire’s respect for a customary border along an equidistance line, from its accession to independence until 2009.”
Prof. Sands noted that his colleagues on the other side made copious arguments “without bothering to pay attention to the replies made by Ghana at the beginning of last week to the Ivorian rejoinder.”
He said Cote d’Ivoire’s prayer to the Special Chamber hearing the dispute to adopt its bisector line argument had no basis in the present case and particularly when it had not been able to undo Ghana’s bountiful evidence before the Special Chamber.
Turning to the picture of the basin provided by Cote d’Ivoire in 2005 and titled: “Deepwater Opportunities in Côte d’Ivoire,” Prof. Sands argued that “they have most of the hydrocarbons, but that is not enough, and now they want more.”
He further accused Cote d’Ivoire of being selective in the matter of geology and denied claims by that country that there would be total deprivation of its natural resources should the Special Chamber give effect to the existing boundary or an unadjusted other equidistance line.
Highlighting Côte d’Ivoire’s oil activity since 2005, he said: “…more than 178 wells, for exploration and development, have been drilled in Côte d’Ivoire’s sedimentary basin, leading to a cumulative production of 90 million barrels of oil and 400 billion cubic feet of gas. Ninety million barrels is a lot more than Ghana Chad at that time.”
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