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China starts work on oil refinery in Niger
Niamey (AFP) Oct 27, 2008 China on Monday started building a billion-dollar oil refinery near Niger's second city of Zinder, public radio said. Niger President Mamadou Tandja presided over a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the refinery to process locally produced oil. With a capacity to process 20,000 barrels per day, the refinery which will be built over three years, is part of a deal Niger sealed in early June with the China National Oil and Gas Development Exploration Corporation (CNODC). The contract grants CNODC oil rights to prospect, explore and produce petroleum in Agadem in the southeastern Diffa region. Western companies have been prospecting for oil in Niger's Agadem region in the northern area of Agadez since 1985, but concluded that the estimated 324 million barrels there were not lucrative enough to prospect and drill. The pact between the Niger government and CNODC will see the company invest about 300 million dollars (194 million euros) to explore and drill 18 new wells in the coming eight years. Anti-corruption watchdog, the Network of Organisations for Transparency and Budgetary Analysis (ROTABAS) has denounced the secrecy surrounding the CNODC contract, insisting authorities should make public all the details. It demanded a parliamentary enquiry into the contract and deplored the absence of a feasibility study on the environmental impact of refinery plant in the area. In June, the Sympamine mining union said the deal with the CNODC "took place in the greatest of secrecy and with contempt for regulation." Sympamine has also said the Agadem site has some 10 billion cubic metres (353 billion cubic feet) of natural gas not mentioned in extracts from the contract published in the media. Since 2006, China has reinforced its economic ties with the impoverished West African nation of Niger, helping the former French colony to tap its vast uranium wealth, one of the largest in the world. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Five Chinese Oil Workers Killed Says Sudan Govt
Khartoum (AFP) Oct 27, 2008Tribal chiefs in central Sudan set out into the bush on Monday hoping to meet the kidnappers of nine Chinese oil workers for the first time and start negotiations for their release, a tribesman said. |
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