Lawrence Apaalse, who recently retired as chief director at Ghana’s Ministry of Energy, will join New York-based United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2023 following his mammoth election at the UN in June.
Offshore Africa’s Chief Editor Gilbert Da Costa spoke to Mr. Apaalse in Accra and first asked him how it all happened.
When the United Nations convention on the law of the sea was promulgated, they set up some agencies under it, so to speak. One of them is the ITLOS we all know about, that is the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea based in Hamburg. The second one is the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf based in New York. The third one is the International Seabed Authority based in Kingston. So all these groups administer various aspects of the law. But I will concentrate on the Continental Shelf. So the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf deals with applications or submissions from coastal states about their ability to establish their outer continental shelf beyond the mandatory 200 nautical miles. The law, the UNCLOS document stipulates that any coastal state is entitled to 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured. The baseline in common language, it just mimics the coastline to say that 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Now after the 200 nautical miles, if the coastal state wants to go beyond that you are entitled to do that by providing scientific data. So when you bring your scientific data and other requirements to the UN, there must be a scientific body that sits down to evaluate your submission; whether you meet the criteria.
What I find remarkable about your election is the fact that you were the first African to be elected and you had the highest votes. That’s impressive. Can you tell us about it? I should say that all that credit shouldn’t come to me. It is the name Ghana. Some of the delegates said, “You are from Ghana. It is okay we are voting for you.” But it is also clear like the Ambassador in New York said to me that I was elected because of my competence. They considered me qualified and experienced for the role. There was evidence that I had gone through the process, preparing the submission of my country myself and presenting it before the Commission I sought to join convinced them. There was no doubt regarding my competency.
Why do you think it is so important for Africa to be represented on this body? It is very important for the continent in the sense that; cast your mind back to the scramble for Africa, when the Europeans partitioned and colonized Africa. They are sharing the oceans now. If Africa sits on the fence we will lose out. If we are not there to protect our interests; even though we do not have the technology we have the right to be there. I give you an example of President Truman of US. You know up till now US has not signed this convention on the delineation of the Continental Shelf. While we were talking about the delineation of the continental Shelf, Truman said the Continental Shelf should be defined up to the depth of exploration. That if you have the ability to explore the 200 nautical miles you have it and if you don’t have the ability to explore you don’t go there. Then if US has the ability to explore up to 400 nautical miles they should be allowed to go. It is a crucial issue, thus Africa needs to be there.
Secondly, The International Seabed Authority in Kingston is looking at all the areas beyond national jurisdiction put together for the interest of mankind. Now mankind includes Africa. If the continent is not represented there, how do you know the issues that affect them presently? The International Seabed Authority they are drafting regulations as to how to explore or to even win contracts within those areas. If Africa is not there who will represent our interests? People are even arguing that we do not have the capacity to explore in our own waters how then do we go beyond our territory. This debate is pointless. It is imperative that we have Africans in these places. We need strong representation so that we are not marginalized.
How is that going to impact on oil and gas, particularly the search for hydrocarbons? Significantly, this Continental Shelf rule provides maritime boundary for every coastal nation, which is 200 nautical miles. Beyond that is international waters whereas within the 200 nautical miles, you are entitled to the water volumes as well as the seabed. So beyond 200 nautical miles you have less jurisdiction over it. So, what is happening at that point is that you can explore for oil and sea deep minerals like manganese within the area. It is very important because if you do not ask to extend your continental shelf to that point and somebody else comes to explore you cannot stop it. So Ghana has the right, where we have just carved out beyond the 200 nautical miles to award same for exploration. Except that the water depth there is 5,000 meters. Are we able to explore hydrocarbons within the 200 nautical miles area assigned to Ghana? Do we have the technology? We haven’t even gotten there. Where we are now is about 100 nautical miles. Where GNPC and co are is about 100 nautical miles. We are about 1,500 square kilometers. We haven’t done 2,000 square kilometers yet. The 200 nautical miles is about 4,000, 4,500 or 5,000. Well the argument is that even 3,000 square kilometers we cannot develop and we are reserving more. But we are doing it for the future of mankind not today.