By NNN-PTI
Beijing : China’s largest oil producer firm, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), will invest in a joint venture refinery in conflict-prone Chad.
The CNPC Service and Engineering Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNPC, has signed an agreement with the Chadian government to jointly invest in a refinery coming up in north of N’Djamena, capital of the north-central African nation.
The subsidiary will take charge of all engineering construction and will adopt Chinese design specifications, manufacturing standards and mechanical equipments, CNPC announced on its website.
However, the oil giant has not revealed how much it will invest or when the project will start.
Chad began to produce oil in 2003 and has found 13 oil fields so far. It has no refineries in the country and has to import refined oil from overseas, Xinhua news agency reported.
The CNPC subsidiary has inked overseas service contracts worth USD 3.09 billion in 2006, up 22 per cent from the previous year.
Since its first cooperation on oil exploration with Sudan in 1996, China, which needs to import oil to support its double-digit economic growth, has invested in 27 major oil and natural gas projects in 14 African countries by 2005 end, including Sudan, Algeria, Angola and Nigeria.