China’s state oil company CNPC, China National Petroleum Corporation, takes control of Niger in a much-needed injection of cash after a coup damaged relations with the United States, Niger’s previous big oil customer Signed a $400 million contract with the military government. States and France.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on Saturday appears to include China lending the junta a huge sum of money to improve its oil infrastructure, but the exact details of the deal have not been made public.
CNPC has already work It is working on a pipeline project in Niger through one of its subsidiaries, PetroChina. The pipeline is designed to link Niger’s Agadem oil field, which is also the centerpiece of Saturday’s trading, to Benin’s port city of Cotonou.
Niger has significant oil resources, but its ability to develop them is limited. Currently, there is only one small refinery that can process about 20,000 barrels per day, most of which is consumed in Niger or neighboring Nigeria.
Analysts say Niger is reserves Reserves are at least 957 million barrels, and could soon be more than three times that amount if exploration of the country’s largely undeveloped eastern base bears fruit.
Niger’s civilian government is overthrown In July 2023, the more hostile National Council for the Defense of the Homeland was established by military strongman General Abdulrahmane Chiani to replace the pro-Western government of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
The military regime sought to eliminate Western powers and had difficult relations with various multinational organizations, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which at one point threatened to invade Niger to restore civilian rule. Niger formed a bloc with the military governments of Burkina Faso and Mali to resist outside efforts to restore elected governments.
niger military government announced Counterterrorism cooperation with the United States ended in March, putting the security of the vast and unstable Sahel region in serious jeopardy. Most of the military forces of former colonial power France were expelled by the end of 2023.
Of course, China doesn’t care about democracy, political freedom, or human rights and is happy to do business with Niger’s military regime.of South China Morning Post (SCMP) Wednesday Quote Analysts are suspicious of China, which signed a similar agreement with Niger to the one with Angola. The deal secured billions of dollars in loans from Chinese banks to help rebuild after the country’s long civil war ended in 2000, and has since continued to repay those loans with oil assets. .
These financial agreements are debt traps, as China forces Third World political elites to rack up huge debts that they can never repay at home, slowly expropriating valuable assets such as ports and oil wells as collateral. has been criticized.
of SCMP African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina has been particularly critical of China’s practice of withdrawing oil and other natural resources as payment for loans, calling the arrangement “complicating debt resolution and mortgaging loans.” It criticized the scheme as “opaque, unfair and prone to corruption”. The future of the country. ”
David Shin, a professor at George Washington University who specializes in China-Africa relations, said Chinese oil companies have been buying crude from Niger for quite some time, and most African countries are looking to break away from Niger. Therefore, the new agreement between China and Niger was a bit of a surprise. Angola’s financing model. China has already invested $4.6 billion in Niger’s oil industry and owns two-thirds of the vast Agadem oil field.
China may have stepped up its investment in Niger after ECOWAS sanctions imposed after the coup were lifted on humanitarian grounds, allowing oil exports from the country to begin on a large scale. China may also be eyeing Niger’s rich supply of high-grade uranium, which France purchased in happier times for its nuclear power plants, and may even consider Niger a dangerous country. good prospects For building new overseas military bases, like the one we established in Djibouti in 2017.
“China is a great friend of Niger. I can’t say it enough,” declared Ali Mahaman Ramin Zein, the junta’s prime minister and finance minister.
“Since this oil odyssey began, China has always been on our side, and we have proven today that at such a critical moment we could clearly demand an upfront payment. rights, and we will give ourselves every means to repay them,” Zain said in announcing the memo to refute criticism of China’s debt-for-oil exchange.
