JDA References

Summary:

Widely recognized as the first JDA Agreement to be executed, it defines a hexagonal area of

overlapping claims where the Saudi Arabia can produce hydrocarbons, on the condition that 50% of the net income is shared with Bahrain.

Summary:

Murchison is a trans-border field in the northern part of the North Sea, on the border between the Norwegian and UK sectors. The Norwegian share of the field was 22.2 per cent and production started in 1980, ceasing in 2014. The field is no longer in production.

Murchison was discovered in 1975, and the plan for development and operation was approved in 1976. The British and Norwegian licensees and authorities entered into an agreement in 1979 concerning common exploitation of the resources on the Murchison field.

Summary:

The 1981 delimitation Agreement between Iceland and Norway established a ‘cooperation area’ Joint Development Area based on the recommendations of the Conciliation Commission. 

The joint development area extends approximately 12,720 square kilometres on the Icelandic side of the maritime boundary, and 32,750 square kilometres on the Norwegian side and provides that a 25 per cent share in petroleum activities from the JDA inside the boundary of one state shall go to the other state. The Agreement provides for the unitisation of deposits which straddle the JDZ and either country’s OCS outside the JDA.

This form of agreement provides a clear jurisdiction as it defines which state laws will apply within two parts of the JDZ region. The agreement is also significant as an example of a bilateral JDA in the Arctic Ocean region. No drilling has occurred inside the JDA as yet.

Summary:

In 1982 Cambodia and Vietnam concluded an agreement that integrated the baselines and resolved territorial disputes over several islands. The agreement also established an area of ‘historical waters of the two countries placed under the juridical regime of their internal waters., called ‘Joint Historic Waters Area or JHWA’ to engage in cooperation.

The agreement stipulated that the two countries would hold, “at a suitable time”, negotiations to determine the maritime frontier in the historic waters area and that the exploitation of the zone would be decided by ‘common agreement.’

The extent the MOU has been implemented to date is unclear.

Summary:

In the 1982 Case Concerning the Continental Shelf (Tunis. v. Libya), ICJ Judge Evensen, in his dissenting opinion, proposed a system of joint development of petroleum resources as an equitable alternative solution to the maritime boundary dispute. 

After the ICJ judgement, Libya and Tunisia signed three agreements; the first for the delimitation of the continental shelf boundary, a second agreement to designate a joint exploration zone in the Gulf of Gabes area; and a third on the participation of Tunisia in the El Bouri field on the Libyan side of the continental shelf boundary. Tunisia receives ten percent of the income from the production in the El Bouri oil fields. 

The joint development agreement followed the recommendations of ICJ Judge Evensen. The joint development area in the Gulf of Gabes area is split into two parts by the delimited continental shelf boundary. The agreement, which does not seem to be publicly disclosed, supposedly discusses the creation and financing of joint-venture projects for oil exploration and exploitation, formation of a joint Libyan-Tunisian exploration company to be established in Tunisia.  The company was to be given the special status of an offshore enterprise to explore the gas field in the northwestern part of the joint zone.  

Summary:

Prior to the independence of Timor-Leste in 2002, In 1989, Australia and Indonesia established a ‘Zone of Cooperation’ JDA for the overlapping claims in the Timor Sea.  Australia and the Indonesian-occupied province.  The Zone of Cooperation was divided into three sections; Area A was subject to ‘joint control and equal sharing of the benefits of hydrocarbon exploitation. Areas B and C were subject to Australia and Indonesia, respectively, and each had to pay the other 10% of the tax revenues collected from its assigned area.

After independence, the 1989 treaty was replaced by the 2002 Timor Gap treaty which established a Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) in what was Area A of the ZOCA. The revenue split was changed to 90% Timor-Leste / 10% Australia within the JPDA.  Areas B and C were eliminated. 

that is coextensive with Area A.  The subsequent 2018 treaty appointed the designated authority to develop the undeveloped Sunrise gas field, revenues split percentages depending on development path chosen. 

For the past 20 years, gas and condensate from the JDA has been processed into LNG at the Darwin LNG plant.

Summary:

The Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (MTJDA), located an overlapping claim continental shelf area in the lower Gulf of Thailand.  The MOU for the JDA was signed in 1979 and the Joint Authority and final agreement were signed in 1990, 11 years later.  

The Joint Authority is responsible, on behalf of the two governments, for the exploration and exploitation of petroleum in the joint development area (JDA) under production sharing

contracts (PSCs). All benefits are shared equally between the two countries.  The MTJDA has been producing hydrocarbons for many decades and is considered by many as one of the more successful JDAs in operation today.

Summary:

The Markham Field is a gas accumulation lying within the Southern North Sea and the first field to be developed that is straddling the UK-Netherlands median line. The 1992 Markham unitisation agreement determined the split of the reserves as 59% of the reserves in Netherlands and 41% in the UK. It is also the first field that exported UK gas to continental Europe.

Summary:

After Vietnam protested Malaysia’s award of Production Sharing Contracts (PCS) in the overlapping area, Malaysia suspended exploration and negotiated a JDA Memorandum  of Understanding (MOU) with Vietnam. The MOU was signed in 1992 allowing the continuation of previously signed PSC contracts, modified to add the Vietnamese  national energy company (Petrovietnam) to the PSC agreement.

The 1992 MOU covered their overlapping claims in the Gulf of Thailand. The long narrow (100 miles and less than 10 miles width) ‘Defined Area’ was to be jointly developed by their nominated State-owned   corporations (Petronas from Malaysia and PetroVietnam from Vietnam). The coordination committee consists of 8 members equally nominated by national  oil companies and have equal voting rights.

Subsequent   agreements covered commercial arrangements, oil and gas sharing, and tax arrangements. These agreements have not been located and may not be in the public domain,.

The first petroleum was extracted from the Bunga Kekwa field on 29 July 1997.

Summary:

After years of failed negotiations, Guinea Bissau and Senegal agreed to arbitrate their pre-independence 1960 maritime boundary agreement established between Portugal and France. The 1989 tribunal ruled in favour of the original agreement. The case was then taken to the ICJ, which confirmed, in 1991, the validity of 1989 tribunal judgement.

In 1993, further negotiations produced a Management and Cooperation Agreement in October

1993 and a supplementary Protocol in 1995 that established a wedge-shaped ‘Area of

joint exploitation’ (Joint Area) straddling the 1960 delimitation line, as well as a further zone of overlapping claims. The zone starts at the land boundary and presumably extends to the outer limits of their maritime claims. Hydrocarbon resources from the exploitation of the continental shelf shall be shared Eighty-five per cent to Senegal, Fifteen per cent to Guinea-Bissau. In the event of new discoveries, these proportions shall be revised, and such revisions shall depend on the quantity of resources discovered. The Agreement mandates the establishment by subsequent agreement of an ‘International Agency’ to exploit the Joint Area.  The JDA has been successful in encouraging exploration efforts in the area.

Summary:

The maritime boundary between Colombia and Jamaica was established through a bilateral agreement that was reached in 1993. The 1993 Treaty also established a Joint Development Zone which the parties agreed to establish a zone of joint management, control, exploration and exploitation of living and non-living resources immediately to the west of the maritime boundary.  The Joint Regime Area excluded two circular areas of 12 nautical miles radius around small islets and cays claimed by Colombia. Article 4 of the 1993 Treaty provides for the establishment of a ‘Joint Commission’ consisting of one representative of each Party responsible for carrying out of activities in the Joint Regime Area.