Niger and several Chinese oil-sector companies operating in the country signed new agreements on May 18 ending a months-long dispute over the terms of cooperation, Sahel Intelligence reports. The headline outcome: Niger acquires a 45% stake in the West African Oil Pipeline Company, the China National Petroleum Corporation subsidiary that operates the export pipeline from Niger’s landlocked oil fields through Benin to the Atlantic coast. The new ownership structure cuts the cost of transporting crude from $27 to $15 per barrel, generating an estimated $100 million in annual savings.
Signed in the presence of Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, the agreements also relaunch two major fields, Dinga Deep and Abolo-Yogou, on the basis of roughly $1 billion in new investment intended to raise daily production from 110,000 to 145,000 barrels by 2029, according to Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangaré. The agreements include skills-transfer provisions and the creation of 450 jobs by 2030.
The contracts are part of a wider effort by the government in Niamey to renegotiate the terms of foreign exploitation of national resources. On the same day, Niger revoked Orano’s Arlit uranium concession and created a new state-owned uranium-mining company, Teloua Safeguarding Uranium Mining Company (TSUMCO SA), to take over the assets of Somaïr — the former Orano subsidiary nationalized in 2025.