MEXICO CITY – Two senior Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) officials traveled to Mexico City July 6-7 to participate in initial discussions regarding the undelimited maritime boundaries in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. BSEE’s Gulf of Mexico Deputy Regional Director Kevin Karl and Congressional and International Affairs Chief Julie Fleming participated as part of the U.S. Delegation that was led by the U.S. State Department.
The delegation included other Department of the Interior representatives from U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. They were joined by delegations from Cuba and Mexico for the first trilateral discussions regarding the Eastern Gap – an area of continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico that lies beyond the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones of each of the three countries.
The portion of continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles is often called “extended continental shelf” or “ECS.” Existing boundary treaties with Mexico and Cuba do not address the Eastern Gap, so the U.S. has no delimited maritime boundary with either country in this area.