According to a pipeline business agent and ship monitoring data on Wednesday, landlocked Niger has restarted crude oil exports via Benin after a disagreement between the two nations stopped the flow of oil through a new pipeline sponsored by China to the coast of West Africa.
The conflict arose from Niger’s unwillingness to remove a prohibition on Benin imports, which prompted its coastal neighbor to obstruct shipments via the pipeline supported by PetroChina in May. Niger stopped the oil flowing through the pipeline in June.
The Aura M, a crude oil tanker flying the Liberian flag, arrived at the Benin port on Tuesday with around one million barrels of oil from Niger, according to a representative of the pipeline operator, West African Gas Pipeline Company (Wapco), who spoke with Reuters on Wednesday.
Ship monitoring information from international maritime analytics service MarineTraffic revealed the ship was loaded and left the port of Benin on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the data, it was scheduled to arrive in China on October 10. It was last observed on Tuesday off the coast of West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea.
The 90,000 barrels per day Wapco-operated pipeline was put into service earlier this year. It reaches the coast of Benin and the Agadem oilfield in Niger over a distance of around 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles).
Political differences within the West African regional organization known as ECOWAS caused it to impose sanctions on Niger last year, which is why Niger disputed Benin’s invitation.
Later, the ECOWAS eased its sanctions against Niger, but Niamey did not allow imports from Benin in return. On Wednesday, it was unclear right away how the conflict had been settled to for Niger to start exporting oil again.
As part of a $400 million agreement, Niger would export crude oil through the pipeline to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), a major player in the oil industry.
