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 | | Mahamadou Issoufou and Jiang Jiemin opened valve at the terminal station |
| On November 28, the ceremony celebrating the completion of the upstream and downstream integrated Agadem project and the inauguration of Zinder Refinery under the Sino-Niger oil and gas cooperation program was held at Niger's southern city Zinder. President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou and CNPC Chairman Jiang Jiemin attended the inauguration ceremony and cut the ribbon together.
At the ceremony, representative of Niger's President awarded the Legion of Merit of the Republic of Niger to CNPC Chairman Jiang Jiemin, PetroChina Vice President Bo Qiliang and PetroChina International Niger General Manager Fu Jilin, as well as medals to 40 outstanding Chinese and Niger employees of the project. Mahamadou Issoufou and Jiang Jiemin cut the ribbon together for the commissioning of the project.
Before the ceremony, witnessed by Mahamadou Issoufou and Jiang Jiemin, Bo Qiliang and Niger's Minister of Energy and Petroleum Resources Foumakoye Gado signed an MOU on the construction of oil transport highways. |
Niger started geological survey since 1957 and issued the first exploration license to foreign oil companies in 1959, but failed to discover any oil and gas resources. In 1969, Texaco made a discovery in the Agadem region which yet was too small for economic exploitation. Other international oil companies successively joined in the effort to explore the region, but all ended in vain.
CNPC and the Nigerien government signed on June 2, 2008 a PSA agreement on the Agadem Block, covering three categories of upstream and downstream activities i.e. exploration and production, pipeline and refinery construction and ongoing operation. Covering an area of 28,000km2, the Agadem Block is located in the hinterland of the Sahara desert, more than 1500km far from Niger's Capital City of Niamey.
During the past three years, CNPC has searched for high-quality oil resources in a safe and efficient manner, leading to a substantial increase in proven oil reserves. Meanwhile, we have completed the construction of a 1 Mt/a crude oil production facility, 462km oil pipeline and an oil refinery, making the Nigerien people's long awaited petroleum dream come true. Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou commented that after fifty years of petroleum exploration, Niger finally produced its first barrel of oil, thus opening a new chapter for the country's development.
While shouldering heavy construction workload in Niger, we strive to promote the local economic and social development. The company has created a large number of jobs, trained Nigerien employees to become key technical and management personnel, and boosted the development of related industries and service enterprises in the local area. Other than that, we actively participated in various public welfare programs including donating for the infrastructure construction, improving school conditions, providing funds and materials for water and electricity supply, and offering medical treatment. The economic development in Zinder region faces great challenge due to the arid climate. However, the establishment of the Zinder Refinery will bring new opportunities to the local development.
In addition to meeting domestic demand, the products of Zinder Refinery will be exported to the neighboring countries. An independent and complete structure of petroleum industry is taking shape in Niger. |
The first phase of Agadem Oilfield has a production capacity of one million tons per annum. Surface engineering of the oilfield includes productivity construction of Goumeri and Sokor oilfields, a CPF, a FPF, a 58km-long oil and gas pipeline connecting the CPF and the FPF, five OGMs and gathering pipelines, as well as two production bases for CPF and FPF.
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The Zinder Refinery includes a 1Mt/a atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit, a 600 Kt/a catalytic cracking unit, a 300 Kt/a diesel hydrogenation uint, a 100 Kt/a reforming unit, a 300 Kt/a gasoline sweetening unit, and three 1.2mw generator sets.
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Connecting the Agadem Oilfield and the Zinder Refinery, it is the first long distance oil pipeline in Niger. With seven stations and six valve chambers, the pipeline has a pipe diameter of 323.9mm, a total distance of 462km, and a designed delivery pressure of 10Mpa.
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| | Oilfield surface engineering construction completed. |
| Signing ceremony for crude oil sales agreement and oil products sales agreement concerning the Sino-Niger integrated Agadem project was held in Niger. |
| Oil pipeline became operational. |
| The Agadem project was completed, and the Zinder Refinery became operational. |
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