- The project in the southwest of Niger, near Gaya, is a cross-border oil pipeline about 2,000-kilometer-long.
- This project is seen as an economic lifeline for Niger.
China National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC)’s largest independent and implemented investment, Belt and Road Initiative project in Niger is gradually taking shape. The project in the southwest of Niger, near Gaya, on the border with Benin, is a cross-border oil pipeline about 2,000-kilometer-long. The pipeline will connect the oil wells in the eastern region of Agadem to the Beninese port of Sèmè.
Although Climate campaigners are seeking an end to carbon-emitting fossil fuel investments, This project is seen as an economic lifeline for Niger- the poorest country in the world according to the UN’s Human Development Index benchmark.
The landlocked West African state became an oil producer in 2011 and has opted for the “Beninese corridor” terminating on the northern rim of the Gulf of Guinea to export oil. Before this, The reserves exploited by CNPC were sent by pipelines to refineries in Zinder in south-central Niger. In a statement, the deputy general manager of West African Oil Pipeline Company (WAPCO), Nafiou Issaka, said that this project launched in 2019 and, projected to be completed in 2022, was slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 600 km of pipeline has already been laid, and Niger is on track to sell crude on the international market from next July, according to the ministry of petroleum and energy. About 700 soldiers have been deployed to ensure security for the project, as a large part of the territory that the project crosses has so far been spared from jihadist violence. Kabirou Zakari, the head of the ministry’s oil refining division, described the project as Niger’s biggest investment since independence from France in 1960.
He also added that the country’s oil production should be increased to 110,000 barrels per day, of which 90,000 barrels will be exported, projecting Niger’s oil production by 2026 to reach about 200,000 barrels per day, and oil could then “generate a quarter of the country’s GDP” more than 13.6 billion dollars in 2020 according to the World Bank and “about 50 per cent of Niger’s tax revenue”.