Niger–Benin Oil Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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The Niger–Benin Oil Pipeline is a proposed pipeline from Niger to Benin.

Location

The pipeline would run from the Agadem oil field in Niger, through southwest of Niamey, Niger, and ending at the Port of Seme Terminal in Benin.

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Project details

• Operator:
• Owner: China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Parent company: China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
• Capacity: 90,000 barrels per day
• Diameter: 20 inches
• Length: 1,950 kilometers
  • 1275 kilometers in Niger
  • 675 kilometers in Benin
• Cost: US$7 billion
• Status: Construction (suspended due to Covid-19 in 2020; now restarted)
• Start year: 2024

*China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

Background

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been trying since 2012 to build a pipeline linking oil fields in Niger to the coast. The initial plan was to build the Niger Chad Oil Pipeline, which would have connected in Chad with the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline — but that plan was abandoned, reportedly "because of a 'poor experience' with Chadian authorities." The official explanation given for the project's cancellation was concerns about attacks by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad area. After that plan began to unravel, CNPC pursued an alternative plan to route a pipeline to the coast through Benin.

In January 2019, Niger's Minister of Petroleum Resources and Benin's Minister of Water & Mines signed a bilateral agreement for the construction of the pipeline. In August 2019, CNPC signed a contract in August 2019 with the government of Benin to build and operate the Niger–Benin pipeline. The 1,980-km, US$7 billion pipeline would start from the Agadem oil field in Niger, connect with the CNPC-built refinery at Zinder, Niger, and end at the port of Seme Terminal in Benin, allowing CNPC to export Nigerien oil. In September 2019, CNPC signed a transportation convention with the two governments and began construction, with Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou laying the first stone and giving the project a full-throated endorsement.

In February 2020, CNPC suspended all construction work due to the COVID pandemic. With COVID raging in China, CNPC had been unable to transfer employees from China, and was worried about the disease spreading among construction workers.

In October 2020 it was reported that CNPC had started detailed designing of the pipeline, and that a consortium of CNPC-related companies had completed the engineering of the onshore section of the project, including 675 kilometers that will run through Benin and 1275 kilometers through Niger.