In an attempt to boost its economy, which has struggled since the violent removal of former President Laurent Gbagbo, Ivory Coast is seeking to redraw its maritime border with Ghana to acquire access to a huge offshore oil field. This move will increase tensions between the two countries and could hurt efforts in the region to attract multinational oil firms and foreign investment.

Officials with Ivory Coast’s state-run oil company Petroci publically challenged its maritime border with Ghana in early November, releasing a controversial new map that would lay claim to several Ghanian offshore oil field blocks comprising 2133 square miles, including the huge Jubilee field, with estimated reserves of between 600 million and 1.8 billion barrels of oil. Petroci has urged the three primary operators of these fields – the UK’s Tullow Oil Plc, the Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Kosmos Energy Ltd. – to restrain from further drilling.