The hearing on the merits in the Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean (Ghana/Côte d’Ivoire) was held at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg between 6 and 16 February 2017. Pursuant to its Rules, ITLOS published the Parties’ written pleadings in the case on the opening of the oral proceedings.
On 3 December 2014, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire concluded a special agreement to submit the dispute concerning the delimitation of their maritime boundary to an ITLOS Special Chamber, formed pursuant to Article 15(2) of the ITLOS Statute. The disputed area includes a number of substantial oil and gas fields.
On 25 April 2015, the ITLOS Special Chamber issued an Order on a request for provisional measures by Côte d’Ivoire, requiring, inter alia, that Ghana “take all necessary steps to ensure that no new drilling either by Ghana or under its control takes place in the disputed area”.
In their written pleadings and at the hearing, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire proposed very different boundary lines. Ghana has proposed a south-westerly line which relies, inter alia, on an alleged tacit agreement between the Parties, the so-called “customary equidistance boundary”. That line would place all of the offshore oil concessions granted by Ghana on its side of the boundary. By contrast, Côte d’Ivoire has proposed a south-easterly angle-bisector line, the “168.7 degrees azimuth line”. Both Parties have made alternative proposals based on the equidistance method, but invoking very different “relevant circumstances” that would result in very different adjustments to the provisional equidistance line.
At the close of the hearing, the President of the ITLOS Special Chamber stated that the judgment is expected to be delivered around the end of September 2017.
For the webcast archives of the hearing, click here; for other documents relating to the case, including the Parties’ written pleadings and transcripts from the hearing, click here.