UN confirms more crude oil reserves in the eastern corridors

More than eight billion barrels of crude reserves exist in the ultra-deep waters of the Ghana's eastern corridor, the United Nations International Seabed Authority (UNISA) has confirmed.

Ghana is, therefore, seeking the expansion of her continental shelf to help redeem that natural resource.Mr. Solomon Korbieh, Foreign Service Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that Ghana had already made a submission to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for the expansion of the continental shelf, which has a lot of prospects for more oil discovery.

The submission, which was made to the CLCS on April 28, 2009, in accordance with Article 76, paragraph 8 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, seeks to expand Ghana's exclusive economic zone from the current 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical mils, thus widening the scope of the country's oil potential.

Available information revealed that in the absence of any objections, consideration of Ghana's submission is likely to be included in the agenda of the 24th session of the commission scheduled to be held in New York from August 10, 2009 to September 11, 2009.Mr Korbieh, who confirmed the submission, said it was very certain that Ghana's request would be approved by the UN commission.

Under laid-down procedure, proposals submitted will be published On the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea to entertain criticisms and objections, after which a subcommittee will be set up by the commission to sit on the merits of individual proposals.

Ghana is among 50 countries worldwide, including Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Kenya, who beat the May 13, 2009 deadline for UN member countries to seek expansion of their territorial waters.

Experts say the oceanographic work required to research and fine-tune submissions for extension is very costly.

Mr Lawrence Apaalse,the National Co-ordinator of the Ghana National Continental Shelf Delineation Project,said $8 million was budgeted for the preparation of the document.

He said if no objection was raised against the submission, the next step was for Ghana to make a presentation of the technical details to the commission for consideration.

Mr Apaalse, who is also a Lead Geologist at the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), said but for issues of overlapping boundaries that might arise from submissions made by neighbouring countries, the success of Ghana's submission was not in doubt.