Niger’s Oil Minister, Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, and his Beninese counterpart for Water and Mines, Samou Seidou Adambi, visited the Agadem oil site in the Diffa region of the country on Friday and Saturday. According to the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum, the two ministers visited the initial station of the Niger-Benin pipeline, which will transport all of Niger’s oil production to the port of Sèmé in Benin.

The construction of the pipeline began in 2019 and was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese company Wapco, which is in charge of the construction, had to interrupt the work for several months.

With the pipeline, Niger aims to put its crude oil on the international market starting in July, with a daily production of 110,000 barrels, 90,000 of which are intended for export. Niger has been exploiting oil since 2011, with a daily production of 20,000 barrels refined locally by the Zinder Refining Company (SORAZ).