Niger Launches 20,000-Barrel Refinery and Oil Production Project

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A new oil refinery has been commissioned at Zinder in the sub-Saharan country of Niger, 900 kilometers east of the country's capital Niamey. The refinery is sited near the border with Nigeria, which will probably purchase surplus production after Niger's modest domestic fuel requirements of 7,000 barrels per day are met.

The Chinese state-owned company China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) (Beijing, China) has a 60% stake in the Soraz refinery project, with Niger holding the 40% balance. The construction of the 20,000-barrel-per-day refinery followed a $5 billion agreement signed in 2008 to build the facility and develop crude oil production from the oilfield at Agadem, which is 700 kilometers east of the plant. The Agadem field has reserves of 480 million barrels of oil.

There is a second phase to the agreement in which CNPC and the Niger government will construct a pipeline to export crude oil. This pipeline is planned for completion in 2013-14.

There was a strong Nigerian contingent at the project-launching ceremony this week, headed by Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan. Nigerian businessmen intend to invest in Niger's oil project and the transportation of refined oil products to Nigeria and other countries in the West Africa region.

Niger's minister of energy and petroleum resources, Foumakoye Gado, said that the multimillion dollar oil project's revenues will allow the government to embark on several projects to improve the standard of living of the country's population of 15 million, who live mainly in the west and south of the country. He said that an agreement had been signed with a construction company to build a 150-kilometer road from Diffa to the oil town of Gegime to facilitate the easy movement of personnel and products.

In a clear illustration of the nexus between Chinese participation in development driving projects in Africa and the building of that country's control of secure energy and commodity resources, the Niger Republic's president, Alhaji Issoufou Mahamadou, decorated five Chinese executives from companies participating in the project with national honors for "a job well done."

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