The British Financial Times reported that Niger is on the cusp of becoming an oil power. For the first time ever, the West African country can export crude oil thanks to the new pipeline linking its oil fields to ports in neighboring Benin.
This would dramatically change the rules of the game for Niger, but the oil is not actually flowing yet, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper’s correspondent in West Africa said that construction of the pipeline began in 2019, and was supposed to cost about 5 billion dollars.
The idea is to build a 2,000-kilometre pipeline that would transport oil from the energy fields in Niger to the ports of Benin overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, which is its southern neighbor. Niger is a landlocked country, and oil is scheduled to be exported via tankers by sea.
Transaction size
According to the British newspaper’s correspondent, Ano Adeoye, this is supposed to change the rules of the game for Niger, which currently produces about 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day, but for local use only.
Production after the new pipeline is expected to increase to 110,000 barrels, and the International Monetary Fund expects Niger’s economy to grow 11%, which could make it the fastest growing economy in the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region.
The International Monetary Fund links this expected growth to Niger’s ability to produce crude oil in the aforementioned quantity.
An ambitious project
According to the newspaper’s correspondent, a border dispute between Niger and Benin and the military coup in Niger last July have prevented the issue of oil exports until now.
After the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed tough sanctions on Niger to punish it, so the border was closed, which also slowed down the construction of the pipeline.
But last February, the sanctions were lifted and normal relations with Niger were restored again by the ECOWAS member states, but Niamey refused to open its borders with Benin for security concerns, according to the official Nigerian position.
Beninese President Patrice Talon believed that it was illogical for Niger to refuse to open the land borders if it wanted to use his country’s ports to transport oil abroad.
