Chad's Oil Exports Swelled by China National Petroleum Corp. Production

   By Emmanuel Tumanjong 
   Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

YAOUNDE, Cameroon--Chad's crude oil exports rose 51% in the first four months of this year, as a Chinese firm began pumping oil through the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, according to a statement released Tuesday by a Cameroonian group that oversees the pipeline.

Chad exported 15.76 million barrels of crude oil between January and April, up from 10.46 million barrels a year ago, said the Pipeline Steering and Monitoring Committee, or PSMC, headquartered in Yaounde. The landlocked country exported 27.6 million barrels last year.

Oil from Chad's southern oil fields in Kome are pumped through a 1,080 kilometer pipeline to Cameroon's Atlantic port of Kribi. The pipeline is operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

The increase is largely due to new oil being pumped by China National Petroleum Corporation, or CNPC, according to Cameroon-born Adolphe Moudiki, who heads the PSMC.

China Petroleum this year became the third oil producer to start using the Chad/Cameroon pipeline, joining Canada's Griffiths Energy International Inc. and a consortium run by Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Petroliam Nasional.

Mr. Moudiki doubles as the executive general manager of the National Hydrocarbon Co., or SNH, which manages Cameroon's oil industry and hosts PMSC in Yaounde.

Cameroon received $20.49 million in pipeline royalties for the first quarter, up 86% from the same period last year, Mr. Moudiki said. The two countries agreed to a higher transit payment in November 2013.

Write to Emmanuel Tumanjong at [e-mail]

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