Ghana seeks UN mediation on maritime border

Ghana has sought arbitration from the United Nations under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) over the two countries’ maritime border. The border has never been formally demarcated and the discovery of oil has significantly raised the stakes. Bilateral negotiations have so far failed to resolve the issue and, in November 2011, Ivorian state oil company Petroci redrew its licensing blocks map, delineating five new blocks on the eastern border, straying into what had previously been considered Ghanaian territory.