- The Niger PetroChina-backed export pipeline project was officially launched on November 1.
- Niger will get 25.4 per cent of the 90,000 barrels per day exported through the pipeline.
Niger’s military leader, Abdourahamane Tiani, has said Niger expects to export its first barrels of crude oil through a new Niger-Benin pipeline in January. The PetroChina-backed export pipeline project was officially launched on November 1, linking Niger’s Agadem oilfield to the Benin port of Cotonou.
In an interview on Niger’s RTS channel, Tiani said the storage tanks in Cotonou are currently being filled and should be done by January, when the commercialisation phase will start. He noted that Niger would get 25.4 per cent of the 90,000 barrels per day (BPD) that will be exported through the pipeline.
Furthermore, the West African country has a small oil refinery with a capacity of around 20,000 bpd which mainly supplies Niger’s domestic fuel market. It aims to refine more oil locally. Tiani, stating that Niger has not benefited enough from its natural resources, added, “Our desire is not to market crude oil. We want to get a refinery to process Nigerien crude on Nigerien soil.”