Oil flows between Niger and Benin – DW – 04/26/2024

This important infrastructure, which was inaugurated in November 2023 and made operational on March 4, 2024, thanks to the visit to Benin of Nigerien customs officials, could improve relations between the two countries.

Even if it is not yet really official, according to the Beninese authorities, the arrival of the first drops of Nigerien oil via the Niger-Benin pipeline at the terminal station of Sémé Kraké, on the Beninese side, now seems established.

Good news for the Beninese, according to Moumouni Khalilou Boubacar, Nigerien economic operator living in Benin. He recalls that “this is a project awaited by both sides of the two States. The pipeline project will create many direct and indirect jobs, it is a relief for our two States.”

Niger boosts its oil production

THE pipeline, 2,000 kilometers long, connects the oil fields of Agadem to a terminal located between Cotonou and Porto-Novo, and now makes Niger one of the main oil producers on the African continent.

Its daily production, which was 20,000 barrels, is experiencing significant growth and now stands at 120,000 barrels.

In a context of crisis between Niger and its neighbor, the economist Rodrigue Rustico says he is convinced that this project will play a crucial role in easing the tension that has prevailed for almost a year between the two states.

For him, “vs’is a very important element that now connects the two countries. Benin has a lot to gain from a tax perspective. When you already see the projected tax revenues, it is around $500 million. Benin will also be able to create nearly 2,000 jobs. It is purely economic interests that are at stake. We are not going to invest so much money and divide ourselves. There is no reason why each state should decide to stay in its corner in order to move forward.”

A project that arouses pride

Everywhere in Benin, as in all localities in Niger, the success of this project seems to make the populations proud. For Moustapha El Hadji Adam Obama, an activist living in Zinder, it is the sense of common interests that has taken precedence over politics.

He estimates that “Lhe two countries have two different visions regarding these political questions. Given that nature has made these two countries neighbors, and that long before this coup d’état there had been an economic project, in relation to this, the authorities of these two countries had a great spirit not to interrupt this project, and that oil from Niger flowed nearly 2,000 km to go to Benin.”

But for now, relations remain tense between Cotonou and Niamey. The land border between the two countries, although officially reopened, is kept closed by the Nigerien authorities who are still blocking trucks coming from Benin. Oil could therefore play a role in easing the situation.