The President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou has announced that the country will start exporting crude oil to international markets from 2016
According to Reuters, President Issoufou said the government has been instructed to accelerate the construction of the pipeline, which would export the crude.
Earlier this year, the government of Niger had expressed plans to export oil through a pipeline that linked its neighbor Chad to the Atlantic Ocean via Cameroon.
From 2011, Niger started producing crude, averaging around 20,000 bpd, from the country’s Agadem field. The country is expected to export between 60,000 bpd and 80,000 bpd of crude in the near term, according to Oil Ministry sources.
The government has set up the Soraz Refinery, which is jointly owned with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Recently, CNPC was awarded a second operating permit in Agadem, which has been estimated to contain one billion barrels of oil.
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