Albert Caruana, the director general of the Continental Shelf Department, Ministry for Resources (November 28) claims that the “Government objected to maps showing shelf boundaries published by research and other institutions”.

All the published maps I have seen to date do not respect Malta’s shelf rights, including the map on Genel Energy’s webpage (this company recently acquired a licence share for Malta’s Area 4). Were these government objections really effective, if they were ever made?

Dr Caruana confirms that the Malta-Libya ‘median line’ (red dashed Line A on map) at present used by the Government, was established in the 1970s. Indeed, it is based on the Draft Delimitation Agreement proposed by Malta in 1972, rejected by the Libyan government.

This ‘median line’ is manifestly not equidistant between Malta and Libya in the east (Line C is equidistant), thereby breaching the Maltese Continental Shelf Act of 1966 with Malta losing a shelf area the size of Sicily. Clearly, this draft ‘median line’ is inadequate and should have been rescinded.

Nevertheless, government experts and the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) in 2002 decided to formalise the 1972 draft median line by incorporating it in the Government Notice which became the basis for the present oil concession map of the MRA (purple shading on map).

Dr Caruana prefers to uphold a 40-year-old shelf boundary while remaining oblivious of three important developments that have taken place since 1972:

Firstly, in the early 1970s sea depths of 200m were the limit for drilling of oil wells which left little compulsion for Malta in 1972 to claim an equidistant boundary in the east where depths exceed 200m. Nowadays, rigs can drill over water depths exceeding 1,000m, as is the case in the Libyan concession to BP.

Secondly, the 1972 ‘median line’ has been superseded by the International Court of Justice ruling of 1985 (Line D), which line should have been extrapolated eastwards. Instead, government remains silent on Libyan concessions to Sirte Oil Company since 2007 (marked SO on map).

Thirdly, the 2002 Malta-Libya shelf boundary of the MRA happens to be nearly equidistant between Malta and the ‘Line of Death’ (Line E) contrived by Colonel Gaddafi in 1973 to claim the Gulf of Sirte as internal waters.

Is the MRA’s map, intently or inadvertently, overturning Malta’s note verbale of 1974 in protest at the Libyan claim and challenging the international community by recognising the illegitimate Libyan ‘internal waters’?

The Maltese people have a right to know.