The United States and Mexico on Monday signed a landmark agreement to jointly develop the oil and gas fields located along the maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico, ending years of negotiations on the issue.
The agreement is the label of the border agreement signed in the margins of a meeting of the G20 group of industrial and developing countries in Los Cabos, Mexico. The agreement lifts the moratorium on oil and gas near the maritime border in the Gulf and includes oil spill and safety. It also sets the legal guidelines for U.S. and Mexican companies to jointly develop a transboundary reservoirs, while the two nations are free to take their share of the oil to take unilaterally to work if they are unable to reach agreement on the development of the oil reservoir in question to achieve. The deal also makes it nearly 1.5 million acres of U.S. Outer Continental Shelf more accessible for exploration and production activities.
The historic agreement, which last year by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Mexican colleague Patricia Espinosa signed in the presence of Mexican President Felipe Calderon and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The deal must be ratified by both U.S. and Mexican legislators for that effect.
But Clinton said after the signing of the agreement that it is “safe, efficient, responsible exploration of oil and gas reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico to guarantee,” and noted that the reservoirs along the maritime boundary “can be substantial reserves that could to be benefit of the United States, Mexico, and the same. ”
Noting that the reservoirs’ neat not necessarily in our maritime borders, “Clinton said,” This could lead to litigation if a company discovers a reservoir that stretches across the border – disputes, for example, about who and how much they need the mining to obtain. The agreement we are signing today will help prevent such disputes. ”
source:businessweek
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