Morocco and Spain have agreed on drawing out maritime borders off Western Sahara’s coast, part of their plan to guarantee common interests regarding the recent oil exploration.
The oil discovery came after both countries strengthened diplomatic ties, as Spain stood behind Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara last month.
Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Jose Manuel Albares confirmed that “the working group on the maritime borders between Spain and Morocco will identify the border space once at all, and it will be a common space.”
Albares previously stated that the exploration for oil and gas planned by Morocco falls within its territorial waters despite the fact that the waters of the Atlantic coast are still undelimited.
According to the Spanish daily Publico, the Moroccan-Spanish working group will meet next month in order to set up plans on drawing out maritime borders of the Canary Islands region, in the Atlantic Ocean, which will constitute one of the main discussions.
Morocco announced that it will start new drilling for the extraction of hydrocarbons, about 100 km away from the maritime border that separates the waters of the Canary Islands, since both sides negotiated on the delimitation of the waters, said the same source.
Albares explained that “everything possible is going to be done to delimit it through an agreement between both countries, within the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea” during the Moroccan-Spanish commission, according to Spanish media ABC.
The planned oil exploration area covers an area of 23,900 km² and is located in one of the areas in which Repsol was looking for gas and oil between 2001 and 2014.
The Basque oil company discovered multiple gas deposits undersea but decided against continuing the drilling because the well reserves were limited and difficult to make viable.
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