Ghana and Togo have failed to resolve an ongoing maritime boundary dispute after three consecutive round of talks.
The two West African neighbours have for some time now been holding talks to conclude on a boundary demarcation to no avail.
Togolese officials as a result have stopped two vessels from Ghana from undertaking seismic activities to acquire data around the demarcated area.
Ghana has over the year’s maintained ownership of the disputed maritime boundary.
Head of Ghana’s Technical delegation Lawrence Apaalse told journalists after a meeting between the two countries in Accra that despite the setback he is hopeful an agreement can be reached.
Mr Apaalse said “everybody has his understanding of the issue, but I quite agree with you that despite three rounds of talks it appears we are not reaching an agreement soon”.
He added that “per my training on Maritime dispute in negotiation when negotiation fails you negotiate until it hurts before you move to third party negotiation, which is arbitration”.
The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea ITLOS on September 23 last year ruled in favour of Ghana after a similar maritime dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast.
The ruling is said to have saved Ghana some $49 billion alone. Some major oil firms such as Tullow had to put on hold new drilling due to the dispute.
Ghana currently produces between 120,000 Barrels of Oil per Day(bpd) to 150,000 bpd, with production volumes tipped to reach in excess of 200,000bpd by 2021.
Source: Africafeeds.com
