The
Niger Delta Basin, also referred to as the
Niger Delta province, is an extensional rift basin located in the
Niger Delta and the
Gulf of Guinea on the passive continental margin near the western coast of Nigeria with suspected or proven access to Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe. This basin is very complex, and it carries high economic value as it contains a very productive
petroleum system. The Niger delta basin is one of the largest subaerial basins in Africa. It has a subaerial area of about 75,000 km
2, a total area of 300,000 km
2, and a sediment fill of 500,000 km
3. The sediment fill has a depth between 9–12 km. It is composed of several different
geologic formations that indicate how this basin could have formed, as well as the regional and large scale
tectonics of the area. The Niger Delta Basin is an
extensional basin surrounded by many other basins in the area that all formed from similar processes. The Niger Delta Basin lies in the south westernmost part of a larger tectonic structure, the
Benue Trough. The other side of the basin is bounded by the
Cameroon Volcanic Line and the transform passive continental margin.