The Nigeria – São Tomé and Príncipe Joint Development Authority is an organization established in 2001 by

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

between

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

to regulate a joint Development Zone along the two countries

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

border in the

Bight of Bonny The Bight of Biafra, also known as the Bight of Bonny, is a bight off the west- central African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea. This "bight" has also sometimes been erroneously referred to as the "Bight of Africa" because i ...

Background

The Nigeria–São Tomé and Príncipe Joint Development Authority (NSTPJDA) is an organization established in 2001 by

that regulates the two countries' Joint Development Zone in the

, along the maritime Nigeria–São Tomé and Príncipe border. The Joint Development Zone is an area speculated to be rich in

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

reserves. Because neither country could have explored the resources in the zone without interfering with the maritime territory of the other country, the countries agreed in a treaty to create a joint development authority which would assist both countries in benefitting from the economic potential of the zone. The ''Treaty between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe on the Joint Development of Petroleum and other Resources, in respect of Areas of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Two States'' was signed in Abuja on 21 February 2001. The Joint Development Authority head office is located in

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

, Nigeria, whose bill for the development of the building in 2013 was inflated. In 2015, Nigeria considered pulling out of the joint venture, saying it had paid the bills for the last 5 years and the expected 100 million

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

/year were not materializing. Sao Tome and Principe had changed interests of the joint venture to fishing, since oil prospects were dim. As of 2016, the JDA had a budget of around US$12 million per year and there were allegations of financial irregularities. Since 2004, it had not organised a licensing round. the Nigeria-Sao Tome Joint Development Authority had funding problems and could not pay staff for months, "despite raking in a total of $300 million in signature bonuses from exploration and exploitation of natural resources in 2001". In 2019, the

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a Norwegian-based organization that seeks to establish a global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. It seeks to address the key governance issues in the ...

International Secretariat requested "reconciliation of revenues and disclosure of contextual information" which it had already asked for in 2015/2016.

References

External links

Official sitelatest snapshot by Archive.org
on 2018-04-25)
Full text of treatyalternative link
- provided by the United Nations)
Joint Development Zone references
at the website of the

* Organizations established in 2001 Organizations based in Nigeria Joint development areas Nigeria–São Tomé and Príncipe relations 2001 in Nigeria 2001 in São Tomé and Príncipe Intergovernmental organizations established by treaty {{nigeria-org-stub