Niger’s Oil Minister Mahamane Mustapha Barki Baku said on Thursday that his country has stopped oil exports to China via a pipeline extending to the coast of Benin, deepening the confrontation between the two West African countries.
The minister personally supervised the closure of part of the pipeline in the Agadem oil field in eastern Niger, which is two thousand kilometers long, and through which exports were supposed to flow to China according to a memorandum of understanding with the giant state-owned Chinese National Petroleum Corporation with a contract worth $400 million.
Cross-border relations have been tense since Benin banned crude oil exports through its port from landlocked Niger last May, and demanded that the military junta reopen its borders to Beninese goods and normalize relations. Earlier this June, authorities in Benin arrested 5 Nigerien citizens for allegedly entering the Seme-Kabudji pipeline station in Benin under false pretenses, charges rejected by Niger.
The group accused by Benin was there to supervise the loading of crude under an agreement with Benin. Explaining the reason for closing the line, the Nigerian Oil Minister said, “We cannot sit idly by while other people steal our oil, because we are not there where it is loaded,” according to what was broadcast on state television.
The tensions date back to the July 2023 coup in Niger, which prompted the regional bloc ECOWAS to impose strict sanctions for more than 6 months. Trade flows in the region were expected to return to normal after the EU lifted sanctions, but Niger kept its borders closed to goods coming from Benin.
