Abe Abraham wrote: ↑14 Oct 2021, 12:45
Somaliman wrote: ↑13 Oct 2021, 18:10
Abe Abraham wrote: ↑13 Oct 2021, 16:08
Somaliman,
Since I discerned from one of your discussion that you are some kind of a maritime expert I would like to know what your thoughts are about the ruling in this shape: ( I know Somalia has accepted it. )
As AbyssiniaLady has pointed out, the map of the BBC is misleading, as it does not reflect the ruling of the ICJ.
As the Somali judge serving on the International Court of Justice (Abdulqawi Ahmed YUSUF), who disputed the construction of the median line and dissented the judgement issued on Tuesday, said, "
the court has this time departed from its settled jurisprudence and opted for a judicial refashioning of geography", and I strongly believe this was intended to accommodate both parties to finally bring an end to the seven year bitter dispute between the two countries.
Is there oil in the Kenyan side of the sea now that the dispute has been settled by the ICJ verdict ?
This is a good question.
Today, on VOA Somali, a similar question was asked to one of the lead lawyers who represented Somalia at The Hague - Paul Reichler: an international lawyer based in Washington, D.C., from Harvard Law School.
Somalia has carried out a few onshore and offshore seismic surveys both in Somalia and the area in question, and these have produced encouraging results. By the same token, Kenya also has undertaken similar surveys and explorations in what was until last Tuesday a disputed area.
However, drilling is still the only sure way to find out whether there’s oil or gas down in an area to date. And since, according to the aforementioned lawyer, only one oil well has been drilled in this area to date, and this one was drilled in the segment that's now allocated to Kenya and nothing was found, no one can claim with certainty that a commercially viable oil/gas is identified in this area, whether it's Kenya's area or Somalia's one - and in Somalia in general.
Oil reserves exist almost everywhere across the world, but when we're talking about oil reserves, we're often talking about commercially viable oil reserves, and these happen to be quite scarce; thus, no wonder oil companies and prospectors have drilled more than two million wells around the world during the last 150 years in hopes of striking oil.
https://www.voasomali.com/a/6270471.html