Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe have signed production sharing contracts with oil companies on two deepwater blocks in a joint development zone (JDZ) in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigerian media reported on Wednesday.

The Joint Development Authority (JDA) signed a production sharing contract for 666-sq km block 3 with a consortium of U.S. independent Anadarko Petroleum Corp., U.S.-based ERHC and Canada- based Addax with a signature bonus of 40 million U.S. dollars.

The JDA also signed a production sharing contract for 857-sq km block 4 with a consortium ERHC, Addax, Nigeria's Conoil with a signature bonus of 90 million U.S. dollars.

An earlier attempt to sign the contract for block 4 last month was thwarted when Sao Tome's delegation left Nigeria's capital Abuja without signing the documents. Nigeria charged Sao Tome and Principe with bad faith and called for a public apology for hampering the deal.

Sao Tome denied responsibility for the flop, blaming Abuja for trying to force it to ink contracts that had been altered to give a small Nigerian firm 9 percent of ERHC's stake in the block.

A similar contract had been signed in February 2005 with a consortium led by U.S. oil giant Chevron for block 1 in the JDZ.

Source: Xinhua