Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea signed a unitization agreement on Tuesday, Feb. 3, for the Yoyo-Yolanda cross-border gas field.

The agreement marks a decisive legal step toward the joint development of a reservoir estimated at 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The agreement combines two operating permits located on either side of the maritime border into a single joint production unit.

This arrangement is part of a bilateral treaty concluded by the two states in 2023 to enable the joint development of hydrocarbon reserves in the Gulf of Guinea.

The treaty was ratified by national parliaments and deposited with the United Nations Secretariat in January 2025 to give it binding international status.

Unitization allows for the exploitation of a single cross-border reservoir under harmonized technical, contractual, and operational rules. It aims to prevent competing production between the two countries and to ensure an agreed allocation of volumes. Joint studies set the resource split at 84% for the Yoyo block on the Cameroonian side and 16% for the Yolanda block on the Equatorial Guinean side.

The development plan is centered on the Yoyo block, which hosts the project’s main infrastructure. It provides for the installation of a processing platform within the Yoyo production-sharing contract area, as well as the drilling of three development wells. Under the agreement, operators Noble Energy and Chevron are authorized to carry out drilling and production operations on both sides of the maritime border within a single industrial framework. Activities will be managed as a single integrated field with common technical coordination.

The produced gas will be transported through two separate pipelines. The first will connect the field to the Bipaga processing center in southern Cameroon. The second will supply the Punta Europa industrial complex on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea, using existing infrastructure from the Alen field.

Chevron has been designated as the project’s technical operator. Total investment for the development is estimated at $4 billion. According to Jim Swartz, Chevron’s managing director for Nigeria and the Mid-Africa region, Yoyo-Yolanda is central to the group’s strategy to support long-term liquefied natural gas supply while leveraging existing infrastructure at Alen and Punta Europa. The project is also intended to feed the liquefaction capacity already installed at Punta Europa.

For both countries, the unitization of the Yoyo-Yolanda field comes at a time of mounting pressure on hydrocarbon-dependent public finances. Aging fields, international price volatility, and dollar instability are weighing on oil revenues. The project is expected to help stabilize gas revenues over the medium and long term through infrastructure sharing and production optimization.

Discussions are still ongoing between the two states and the operator regarding the applicable legal framework for the production unit, as well as foreign exchange regulations. These issues are seen as critical to securing the financial flows generated by the exploitation of the reservoir.