KIEV, Feb. 3 – Ukraine received most of known crude oil and gas fields around the maritime area disputed by Romania in the Black Sea after a ruling by the International Court of Justice, a Ukrainian official said Tuesday.

The U.N.'s highest court on Tuesday defined the Black Sea border between Romania and Ukraine, giving Romania about 80% of the disputed area, according to Romanian diplomats.

But Andriy Honcharuk, a deputy head of President Viktor Yushchenko’s office, said the territory awarded by the ruling to Ukraine contains most of the known fields in the area.

“Practically all known oil and gas fields have remained on the Ukrainian territory,” Honcharuk said at a press conference.

Romania estimated the area around the Zmeyiniy (Seprent’s) Island may contain about 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and about 10 million metric tons of crude oil.

Romania took the matter to the U.N. court in 2004 after six rounds of bilateral negotiations collapsed over the boundary of the Black Sea's continental shelf - a source of economic rivalry for decades.

The court in September examined the dispute, primarily centered on the small, uninhabited Serpents' Island, where natural gas and oil deposits are thought to be concentrated and where one of the great heroes of Greek legend, Achilles, is said to have been buried, according to documents filed with the court.

Kiev plans to create an exclusive economic zone in an area around the uninhabited 17-hectare islet, whose ownership has shifted from Romania to Ukraine over the years.

Located some 20 nautical miles off the Danube delta (territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles out, causing overlapping claims off a shared shoreline), Serpents' Island was owned by Romania until 1948 when it was ceded to the then- Soviet Union.

After the dissolution of the USSR, which used it as a military base, Serpents' Island formally became part of the territory of newly independent Ukraine.

The unanimous ruling by the International Court of Justice's 15 judges, which both parties agreed in advance would be binding, gives Romania about four-fifths of the area it claimed.

The new border includes a 12-nautical-mile arc (22 km) around Serpents' Island, which then hits a line equidistant from Romania and Ukraine's adjacent coasts.

The court also determined that Serpents' Island could be considered an island, rather than just a rocky outcrop as Romania had claimed.

This will now permit Ukraine to create an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which according to UN Convention on the Law of the Sea extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coastline of the 17 hectare (42 acre) landmass.

"We consider this an equitable and correct solution by the court," Bogdan Aurescu, Romania's agent on the case, told reporters afterwards.
Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Oleksandr Kupchyshyn described the ICJ's decision as a "wise compromise.” (nr/ez)