The Continental Shelf means the bottom and sub-bottom of coastal marine areas which extend, outside territorial waters, up to the 200m isobath or, beyond this limit, up to the point where, in relation to the development of mining technology, it is possible to exploit areas located at greater depths (Geneva, IV, 1). The principles adopted by Italy for regulating the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons on its continental shelf are contained in Law no. 613. The legislation governs the conditions for the issue of research permits by establishing, in harmony with the relative provisions of the IV Geneva Convention of 1958, that the limit of the Italian continental shelf is constituted by the 200 m isobath or, further on, by points of greater depth, if the extraction technique allows it, up to the "median line between the Italian coast and that of the states facing it", unless, with agreement, a different border is established. The agreement with Yugoslavia of 8 January 1968 (ratified with Presidential Decree No. 830 of 22 May 1969; in force since 21 January 1970): follows the criterion of the median between the coasts of the two countries, Slovenia, Croatia and the Montenegro are successor states with respect to this Agreement. In 2005, Italy and Croatia entered into a technical agreement which, leaving the content of the 1968 Agreement unchanged, transformed the coordinates of points from 1 to 42 of the delimitation of the continental shelf traced on the Italian and former Yugoslav nautical charts attached to the 1968 Agreement. In the Agreement with Albania of December 18, 1992 (ratified with law April 12, 1995, n. 147 and entered into force on February 26, 1999 ), the delimitation was determined on the basis of the principle of equidistance expressed in the median line from the coasts of the two countries without taking into account their straight baselines.
