The impact of maritime boundary delimitation on the development of offshore mineral deposits

Abstract

Many developing countries are keen to promote investments in maritime areas that are subject to overlapping claims or are even the subject of sovereignty disputes. The link between attracting investment for development of such areas and the settlement of the dispute concerned is the delimitation of the boundaries of the area. The settlement of overlapping claims in maritime zones has led to the development of hard mineral and petroleum deposits in border areas. This has been clearly demonstrated in the North Sea and the Persian Gulf in the case of petroleum. Where there is a failure to settle overlapping claims, as in the South China Sea and Aegean Sea areas, investors tend to avoid such areas. However, in a growing number of cases, coastal states have resorted to the joint development of mineral deposits in areas of overlapping claims in the absence of an agreement to settle their claims, as is evidenced in the Red Sea region with respect to minerals (Sudan and Saudi Arabia) and the Timor Sea in the case of petroleum (Indonesia and Australia).