The government of Niger is offering a new acreage to the international oil industry. This acreage belongs to the East Niger basin, which comprises the Kafra, Grein, Bilma, Tenere, Termit, and N'Gel Edji grabens. The East Niger basin is close to Chad, where large oil reserves have been announced and are likely to be developed soon. This decision, if confirmed, will appear as a major step for the economy of Central Africa and strongly influence the petroleum strategy of neighboring countries such as Niger. Recent papers have shown the major geological features of the rift basins in central and West Africa. These rifts are related to major fracture systems running from the Benue trough in Nigeria to East Niger grabens in the north and Chad and Sudan grabens in the east. In East Niger grabens, oil and gas discoveries have been made on 4 structures and oil and gas shows have been recorded in most of the wells drilled in the area.