ABSTRACT
Among the many border disputes that Cameroon and Nigeria have had in the years since independence, the dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula stands out very clearly as the most serious dispute of all. This chapter examines the implications of the ICJ's Bakassi Decision for exploitation of oil and gas in disputed waters. It also explores a number of other maritime boundary disputes which like the Bakassi Dispute, carry one common feature, the presence of rich petroleum reserves in contested waters. The chapter considers both the positive implications for other disputes as well as the complications emanating from the ICJ Decision. The relations between the Mediterranean States of Greece and Turkey, similarly to Nigeria and Cameroon, have been historically marked by periods of mutual hostility and reconciliation ever since Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821.
