It isn’t very often that oil and gas exploration uncovers its own modern day mystery, but apparently one has developed this June in the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that “Isla Bermeja” is missing. It was a 31 square mile patch of wasteland but Mexico has vowed to keep looking for it since it could extend its 200-mile territorial limit for offshore oil claims.

Bermeja appears on ancient maps from the 17th and 18th centuries off the north coast of the Mexican state of Yucatan. However it can no longer be found on more recent maps. In fact, it does not appear on even the oldest satellite pictures of the area dating back to the late 1970’s and 1980’s.

Theories behind the missing island range from shifts in the geography of the ocean floor from earthquakes, rising sea levels from global warming, and the more amusing hypothesis of the CIA blowing it up to expand the zone allotted to the United States.

Why is Mexico in such a hurry now to locate this tiny island? If such an island existed, it could be used to mark the boundaries allocated by law for economic activities which include the exploration rights of oil. Bermeja was shown lying farther off Mexico’s coast than other confirmed islets, possibly extending the nation’s claim by about 55 nautical miles. Without the island, Mexico’s furthest point of reference in the Gulf would be Alacranes islands.

Adding to the urgency is the “doughnut hole” treaty Mexico and the United States entered into in June of 2000 which protected oil deposits in the gulf that were outside their 200 nautical mile limits. The defined moratorium on exploration and exploitation in the treaty area expires next year. Not finding Isla Bermeja means that Mexico’s sovereignty in the Gulf would not extend as far as originally believed which would limit access to the oil rich deposits thought to be under the sea floor.

Elias Cardenas, the head of Mexico’s congressional Maritime Committee has asked for more funding for oceanographic studies to help solve the mystery by exploring four other possible areas where the island might have been located. The matter is imperative since Mexico and the U.S. are expected to soon formalize a drilling rights agreement in the area.