Seychelles and Mauritius have agreed to have petroleum exploration within the Joint Management Area (JMA) of the Mascarene Plateau at a recent meeting of the Technical Committee of the Joint Commission of the extended continental shelf.

This will start with a multi-client survey, including a seismic survey, to know if, where, and how much oil reserves are in the area.

Speaking to SNA, Philippe Michaud, co-chair of the meeting, confirmed that negotiations are underway with a company interested in undertaking the survey. Once this is done, an agreement will be signed, leading to an environmental impact assessment (EIA), before work can start.

He did not reveal the name of the company as no confirmation has been given, but Spectrum Geo is the company that was announced in 2018 when the idea to explore the Mascarene Plateau was first put forward.  

"There are a lot of risks involved in oil exploration and there were a lot of factors, including low oil prices, the came the pandemic and now the interest is rising and so we are optimistic," said Michaud.

He added that for this survey, there are no direct costs for Seychelles and only once the extraction of oil begins can Seychelles and Mauritius get 50 percent each of whatever revenue it generates.

"We will, however, be involved in all the processes though, with our technical committee participating. At the moment, I am unable to give you a time frame of how when things will be fully off the ground," added Michaud.

The Joint Management Area is the mechanism of joint jurisdiction between Seychelles and Mauritius over an area of the seabed and its underlying subsoil in the Mascarene Plateau Region. It excludes the water and living organisms above the shelf.

A treaty was signed in 2012 and the two island nations secured rights to additional seabed covering over 400,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean. The process involved the preparation of a joint continental shelf submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf under an internationally agreed process established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Seychelles and Mauritius have established the world's first Joint Management Zone covering such an area, and a Joint Commission to coordinate and manage the exploration, conservation and development of the living and non-living resources of the seabed in the area.

Michaud explained that other outcomes from the meeting, which took place between August 26 to 28, were related to sea cucumber fishing, where he said that they discussed having a second campaign for the exploratory harvesting of the species in the area.

He added that with this second campaign, they will be looking at certain changes to the existing conditions.  

"In the second phase we want boats to explore a larger zone and more variety of the species, so that we get a better idea of the stock, after which we will be able to put in place a management plan for that stock," said Michaud.