06-11-00 Delegates from the archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe have been meeting Nigerian officials to negotiate joint offshore oil and gas exploration projects in the region. A Nigerian delegate, speaking from Sao Tome city, was quoted as saying that the meeting was aimed at studying the feasibility of establishing two joint enterprises for oil exploration in a zone that includes the two countries' maritime frontiers.
Details of the potential for co-operation and the extent of the zone will be decided by a joint supervision commission, and another meeting is expected to take place in Abuja, Nigeria, at a yet-to-be determined date. Sao Tome, Principe and Nigeria agreed in August to jointly exploit petroleum reserves in offshore zones that had been the subject of dispute between Sao Tome President Miguel Trovoada and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sao Tome and Principe started negotiating with Nigeria on the delimitation of the two countries' maritime frontiers in late 1999, in a bid to pave the way for exploration for oil and gas in their territorial waters.