The oil rig 'Atwood Achiever' is owned by Atwood Oceanics, but chartered by Kosmos Energy from the USA and Cairn Energy from Scotland.
The vessel is expected to call into the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia in a few days time. After that, the rig will set sail for occupied Western Sahara, where it will undertake the first ever test well drilling since the start of the Moroccan occupation.
Oil exploration and development in Western Sahara is in violation of international law. In 2002, the United Nations Legal Office established with great clarity that any such activity ought to be in accordance with the wishes and the interests of the Saharawi people to be considered legal. Neither of those requirements have been fulfilled by Kosmos Energy and Cairn Energy.
The Saharawi people are increasingly speaking out against Kosmos' oil programme in their occupied country. Last week, Saharawi groups from the occupied territory sent a protest letter to the company. The Frente Polisario, the internationally recognised representative of the people of Western Sahara, has expressed its opposition on numerous occasions.
The involved companies refuse to listen, and prefer to collaborate with the occupying regime, Morocco.
Morocco allocates land in occupied Western Sahara to green hydrogen investors
Morocco’s ambitions to become a global green hydrogen powerhouse are accelerating. Yet, Rabat is allocating land in a territory it does not legally own.
US eyes minerals in occupied Western Sahara
Seeking to position itself as a key supplier of strategic minerals for Western powers, Morocco has signed a new agreement with the United States that covers Western Sahara’s waters and the critical minerals harboured there.
TAQA-Moeve obtains land in occupied Western Sahara
Morocco’s push for green hydrogen has taken a decisive step forward - on territory it does not legally own.
EU-Morocco Statement: autonomy without self-determination, law without lawfulness
A joint statement that came out of last week’s EU-Morocco Association Council asks readers to believe in a fiction: that an undefined autonomy plan imposed by an occupying power can satisfy the right to self-determination, and that respect for international law can coexist with the systematic ignoring of the EU’s own highest court.