On Wednesday, April 3, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea announced that their maritime border dispute had been resolved. A joint statement said the countries agreed on a common border.
Earlier this year, Nigeria settled a boundary dispute with the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, creating a Joint Development Zone (JDZ) that covers 20,000 sq km off the West African coast in 1,500 to 3,000 meter water depths. New seismic surveys are being gathered to provide more data for a licensing round the countries hope to hold this year.
Nigeria has fought over maritime boundaries with neighboring countries over the past several years. To end the squabbling, Nigeria joined with Angola, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe to create a single body to protect common interests.
Unfortunately, even though government-level treaties have been put in place with other countries, Nigeria has been unable to guarantee the safety of oil field workers in its own offshore area. The most recent incident involved 10 oil workers employed by Royal/Dutch Shell, who were kidnapped April 1 and held hostage for several days. Episodes such as this are still far too common in the region.
