Somalia has taken its maritime border dispute with Kenya to the United Nations’ top court which could settle a dispute and pave the way for oil and gas exploration.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a statement said Somalia has told the court that both countries disagree about the location of the maritime boundary and that diplomatic negotiations have failed to resolve the dispute. “Somalia requests the Court to determine, on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the Indian Ocean,” the ICJ said.

Somalia has challenged Kenya’s attempts to award offshore exploration blocks to Total and Eni in an area where it says the boundary had not been demarcated.

At the heart of the dispute is how the boundary between the two countries should be demarcated. Kenya would like the boundary to run horizontally east from the point at which the two nations touch on land. Somalia, which lies to the north of Kenya, would like the onshore border to continue into the ocean diagonally southeast.