It is a long pipe that winds through the Sahara, until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. The oil pipeline which runs for almost 2,000 kilometers from the Agadem fields to the port of Sèmè-Podji, in Benin, is the centerpiece of Niger’s oil project. Until now, this Sahelian state, one of the poorest in the world, was a very modest producer of black gold, used locally or sold to its neighbors. With this pipeline, Niamey was preparing to join the club of African crude exporters. After five years of work and 2.3 billion dollars of investments (2.1 billion euros), the work was almost finished, its inauguration planned for October. And then disaster, it’s the coup d’état.
On the evening of July 26, a handful of soldiers, wearing serious faces and camouflage uniforms, appeared on television screens to announce the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum, sequestered in his residence. Suspension of institutions, curfew, closure of borders… Quickly, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed heavy financial and commercial sanctions, and threatened, with unprecedented verve, a military intervention. In response, the meeting barricades itself. On the border with Benin, perceived as particularly hostile, the military places heavy containers to block the bridge which spans the yellowish waters of the Niger River, the only road crossing point between the two countries.
For the oil pipeline, everything stops. A few last tonnes of material are blocked on the Beninese side. The Chinese manufacturer CNPC (also operator of the Agadem fields) holds its breath – and its nerves – while the junta studies the possibility of building a new pipeline, passing through a “friendly” country, such as Chad or Algeria , tells the site in August Africa Intelligence. Will Niger produce oil and when? The number of observers is doubtful in the short term.
“The floodgates are open”
New twist at the beginning of November, only three months later. With great fanfare, the junta organized an inauguration at the starting point of the oil pipeline, in the desert southeast of Agadem with oil reserves estimated at 2 billion barrels. In front of an audience of officials sheltered from the scorching sun, a heavy red carpet was rolled out on the sandy ground. The Nigerian and Chinese flags flutter in the wind. Long blue gandoura, sunglasses and white scarf, Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine is “warmly welcomed” by the local boss of CNPC, Zhou Zuo Kung, before writing a few words in the guestbook – chosen in bright red for the occasion. A ceremony “of very great significance for Niger” which marks “the start of production”comments emphatically on public television.
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