While something like 90% of known offshore hydrocarbons lie in what would become Scottish waters, differences in existing administrative boundaries could lead to competing territorial claims, said Professor John Paterson from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Law in an interview with DecomWorld.
“The broad process for identifying the international maritime boundary is fairly straightforward,” he said, “but the detail can be difficult to foresee and the actual outcome of that process may not be as cut and dried as some suggest.”

The grey area lies between two existing administrative boundaries, one outlined in the Civil Jurisdiction and Criminal Jurisdiction orders of 1987 and another defined at the time of devolution in 1999. The latter creates a slightly smaller Scottish maritime area.

“There would undoubtedly be some uncertainty in fields in areas subject to any competing claims,” Prof Paterson said. “In some fields there may be a period where it’s not quite clear where they stand, literally. One of the difficulties here is that we don’t know what the attitude of the Westminster government will be.”

However, he said any such dispute would likely be resolved quickly: “Both governments understand that certainty is needed so, even if there is ongoing debate, neither would want to take any action that would destabilise the situation for the industry, because that’s in no one’s interests.”

He added: “All the countries of the British Isles need investment along the whole energy chain.”

You can hear from Professor Paterson in more detail at the 10th North Sea Decommissioning Conference (Aberdeen, Dec 3-4). He will be joined by the Scottish Government, Labour Party, HM Treasury, Shell, Statoil & more. Click here to book your pass.