Wednesday, August 29, 2012



Simmering border disputes in battle

to control oil, gas


In Summary
·         Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Zanzibar, South Sudan and Uganda are all engaged in arguments over border, which have intensified with the discovery of minerals.
·         As East Africa becomes a hotspot for oil, gas and mineral exploration, the past three years have seen multimillion-dollar foreign investments in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan and Mozambique.
·         At the centre of the latest dispute is Kenya’s decision to lease eight offshore blocks to oil exploration companies, seven of them in a contested area of the Indian Ocean amounting to 116,000 square kilometres—an area roughly the size of Malawi.
·         The East African Energy Forum, a Somali lobby group linked to Transparency International, last week issued warnings to the Kenyan government and four international oil companies it said were “illegally exploiting” offshore hydrocarbon concessions off the southern coast of Somalia.
·         While the 1982 UN Common Law on the Sea is cited in the Kenya-Somalia dispute, Tanzania and Malawi are holding their positions on two conflicting laws governing their borders.
·         The two countries are in dispute over oil exploration rights after Malawi last year issued a licence to a British firm to prospect for hydrocarbons in Lake Malawi.
·         Malawi maintains that the border between the two countries was defined in the Heligoland Treaty signed by Germany and Britain, who were the colonial rulers at that time, on July 1, 1890.
·         Tanzania for its part believes that the border should be in the middle of Lake Malawi, basing its argument on common international law, which stipulates that in situations where two countries are separated by a body of water, the border is in the middle of that water body.

The discovery of oil and gas in the East African region could mark the beginning of long-drawn-out diplomatic dramas triggered by territorial disputes over control of resources.
Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Zanzibar, South Sudan and Uganda are all engaged in arguments over border, which have intensified with the discovery of minerals.
As East Africa becomes a hotspot for oil, gas and mineral exploration, the past three years have seen multimillion-dollar foreign investments in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan and Mozambique.
The huge flow of foreign investments into the oil and gas sector is creating unease between countries seeking control of the region’s natural resources, political and international relations analysts said.
At the centre of the latest dispute is Kenya’s decision to lease eight offshore blocks to oil exploration companies, seven of them in a contested area of the Indian Ocean amounting to 116,000 square kilometres—an area roughly the size of Malawi.
And while Kenyan officials remain confident that the area is in their territory, their Somali counterparts are alarmed.
The East African Energy Forum, a Somali lobby group linked to Transparency International, last week issued warnings to the Kenyan government and four international oil companies it said were “illegally exploiting” offshore hydrocarbon concessions off the southern coast of Somalia.
The lobby group said on Thursday (last week) the oil giants had engaged in a “gross infringement of Somalia’s offshore resources, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
“These offshore oil blocks are solely owned by the Republic of Somalia as stipulated in the 1982 UN Common Law on the Sea. Kenya’s move to sell these oil blocks violates international law,” said Abdillahi Mohamud, the lobby’s managing director.
Source: AfricaReview Newspaper

No comments: