Signing of strategic oil agreements between Niger and China

Niamey, Beijing sign strategic memorandums of understanding to facilitate Nigerien oil production and export (News Agency of Nigeria)

Niger’s junta-led government announced on Monday a series of agreements with Chinese companies to facilitate oil production and export, after months of tension and disagreements between the two sides over oil sector management and labor issues.

The military regime, which came to power in Niger in a coup in July 2023, is trying to consolidate its control over the country’s natural resources, especially oil and uranium, as part of efforts to rearrange economic partnerships with foreign powers.

Relations between Niamey and Beijing have been strained over the past year after Nigerien authorities issued a decision to deport workers and officials of the China National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries operating in the country, over disputes over local labor and operating conditions.

But on Monday, the two sides signed several new agreements during an official ceremony attended by Chinese and Nigerien officials, including Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Al-Amin Zain.

The agreements include the relaunch of two oil projects, Dinga Deep and Apollo-Yogo, with investments of $1 billion, in a move aimed at boosting the country’s crude production in the coming years.

Raising production and reducing costs

Nigerien Foreign Minister Bakary Yawo Sangari said during a ceremony broadcast on state television that these agreements “will raise our production from 110,000 to 145,000 barrels per day by the end of 2029.”

He said the cost of transporting oil through the export pipeline had fallen from $27 to $15 per barrel, which would save Niger more than $106 million a year.

Niger also acquired a 45% stake in China’s West African Petroleum Pipeline Company, which operates the giant crude oil pipeline to neighboring Benin.

The new agreements will create about 450 jobs for Nigerians by 2030, Sangari said, stressing that the contracts will be awarded “for the benefit of local Nigerien companies”, while working to reduce the large gap between the salaries of foreign and local employees.

According to the authorities, the talks that led to these agreements began in June 2025 during meetings held in China, while Chinese companies have been extracting oil in Niger since 2011.