The Equatorial Guinea – Nigeria Maritime Boundary Treaty is a 2000 treaty between Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...

 and Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 which delimits

Boundary delimitation

Boundary delimitation, or simply delimitation, is the term used to describe the drawing of boundaries, but is most often used to describe the drawing of electoral boundaries, specifically those of precincts, states, counties or other municipalities...

 a portion of the maritime boundary

Maritime boundary

Maritime boundary is a conceptual means of division of the water surface of the planet into maritime areas that are defined through surrounding physical geography or by human geography. As such it usually includes areas of exclusive national rights over the mineral and biological resources,...

 between the two countries.

The treaty was signed in Malabo

Malabo

Malabo is the capital of Equatorial Guinea, located on the northern coast of Bioko Island on the rim of a sunken volcano....

 on 23 September 2000 by Equatoguinean president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is an Equatoguinean politician who has been President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has overseen Equatorial Guinea's emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s...

 and Nigerian president

President of Nigeria

The President of Nigeria is the Head of State and head of the national executive. Officially styled President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The current President of Nigeria is Goodluck Jonathan.-History:On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained...

 Olusegun Obasanjo.

Demarcation

The boundary

Border

Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...

 set out by the text of the treaty does not demarcate the entire Equatorial Guinea – Nigeria treaty. When the treaty was signed, the International Court of Justice

International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...

 (ICJ) was hearing a case about a maritime dispute between Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

 and Nigeria; because the result of that case would affect the maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Guinea

Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....

, it was decided to leave the complete delimitation of the boundary until after the ICJ case concluded.

The boundary defined in the treaty runs through the Bight of Bonny

Bight of Bonny

The Bight of Bonny is a bight off the West African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea...

 and separates the Nigerian mainland from Equatorial Guinea's Bioko Island

Bioko

Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...

 . The boundary consists of nine straight-line maritime

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

 segments defined by ten individual coordinate points. Rather than adopting an equidistant line between the two countries, the treaty takes into account both countries' established economic interests in the Gulf of Guinea, including existing oil well

Oil well

An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...

s, oil drilling installations, and existing resource consent licences.

The full name of the treaty is Treaty between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea concerning their maritime boundary.