Gulf of Guinea’s golden triangle

A golden triangle in the Gulf of Guinea, covering the deep-water areas of Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé e Príncipe, could be the oil industry's next boom province. Border disputes and other problems have acted as a brake on exploration since operations in 1,000-metre water depths became possible, but large discoveries made nearby have been an incentive towards resolving them. Martin Quinlan writes

EXPLORATION in the golden triangle is about to escalate, with the imminent award of the first licences in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ), the formerly disputed offshore area between Nigeria and São Tomé e Príncipe (STP). In Equatorial Guinea's waters, small fields have developed into large ones and exploration has accelerated. Only Nigeria, with undoubted prospects, but with production limited by its Opec quota, seems unlikely to be able to fulfil its golden-triangle potential for the moment. Territorial disputes Opening up the area has had to wait for the resolution of a number of international territorial disputes—but some continue. The most significant of the resolved disputes was that