Les approches réalistes des relations internationales établissent un lien causal entre les hydrocarbures et les conflits frontaliers. S’émancipant de ces lectures déterministes, cet article s’appuie sur du matériau produit au cours d’une enquête ethnographique sur l’insécurité au niveau de la façade maritime du Cameroun entre 2009 et 2022 pour analyser les enjeux de conflit et de coopération autour des ressources dans la baie de Biafra. L’analyse croisée des documents d’archives administratives et sécuritaires, des entretiens et la littérature spécialisée montre, entre 1960 et 2023, deux séquences successives où les ressources pétrolières et gazières maritimes, autrefois objets conflictuels sont devenus des facteurs de coopération transnationale. Cet article analyse également les déterminants de la multiplication des accords sur les zones d’exploitation conjointes dans la baie de Biafra. Il met en perspective, par exemple, le mauvais rôle qui est généralement attribué aux multinationales pétrolières. Les dynamiques décrites dans cet article rendent également compte des manifestations locales d’une dynamique globale de transformation en profondeur des frontières. Elles permettent surtout de sortir des approches militantes et victimaires de l’historiographie africaine des frontières et des lectures déterministes qui font des frontières des obstacles majeurs au développement, à la coopération internationale et à l’intégration régionale.
The political ecology’s approach to conflict emphasizes unequal resource access as a driver of border conflicts and civil wars. Like realists’ theories of international relations, it establishes a causal link between hydrocarbons, border conflicts, and petrol violence. Contrary to these deterministic readings, this article analyzes the issues of conflict and cooperation around marine energy resources in the Bay of Biafra. This research data was produced during an ethnographic survey on insecurity on Cameroon’s seafront between 2009 and 2022. These are administrative and security archival documents and documents, interviews with officials from the Border Research Unit of the Cameroonian Ministry of Territorial Administration, and various reports from national oil companies and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives in Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Nigeria, as well as the various treaties on Joint Development Zones. The cross-analysis of the data produced makes it possible to historicize the role of energy resources in the dynamics of conflict and cooperation in the Bay of Biafra. Between 1960 and 2023, there were two successive sequences in which maritime oil and gas resources, once objects of conflict, became factors of transnational cooperation. After describing this area’s oil and gas potential and analyzing the determinants of maritime border conflicts that have occurred there, this article shows that the presence of hydrocarbons has been at the heart of the territorialization of the Bay of Biafra national maritime areas. Before the 2000s, the conflict dynamics around hydrocarbons in this area were linked to the low territorialization of marine spaces, particularly to the overlap of continental shelves and the general configuration of national coasts (concavity, inflections, and presence of islands). The discovery of resources in disputed spaces has opened Pandora’s box of border conflicts. Fueled by multinational oil companies, Great powers, and local predatory regimes, these conflicts have manifested in a spectrum ranging from legal battles to war, incursions, and various incidents. However, since 2001, despite difficulties in delimitating national maritime borders, energy resources have become factors of transnational cooperation and a challenge for stabilizing national naval areas. The territorialization of the Bay of Biafra’s maritime spaces has opened windows of opportunity that lead to agreements on Joint Development Zones, pending the signing of final agreements. The international context, resource geography, and economic considerations influenced this cooperative dynamic. In addition, multinational oil companies, which have been accused of exacerbating tensions between oil-producing countries in the Bay of Biafra, are increasingly encouraging Treaties on the joint development of cross-border oil and gas fields. Finally, security problems, primarily maritime piracy, have forced the States of the subregion to cooperate and implement integrated responses to secure their interests at sea. This article puts into perspective, for example, the lousy role attributed to oil multinationals. The dynamics described also illustrate the local manifestations of a global dynamic of in-depth transformation of borders. They make it possible to move away from the militant and victim-based approaches of African historiography of borders and from the deterministic readings that make borders significant obstacles to development, international cooperation, and regional integration.
