dennis wrote:
Most of the gas and over 90% of the oil are in Scottish waters if the
marine boundaries are drawn up according to international law.

Not on the maps I saw.
The boundary goes perpendicular to the coast at the border which is
about 50 degrees N on the east side, I don't recall the west side.

Perpendicular to the coast *is* international law. And, naturally, the
further out to sea you get the more coast there is to be perpendicular
to, so in the case of the North Sea England/Scotland border that
results in the border running approximately north-east from the coast
and gradually turning more and more straight eastwards and the
landmass of Aberdeenshire starts to effect the median line distances.

Anyway, this is all moot, there are established procedures on how to
do all this, 1922 and the partition of Ireland. All the "problems" are
already dealt with - splitting the national debt, cross-border
control, maritime borders, common geographical mapping grid, right to
stand and vote in elections.

JGH