AA/Niamey/Salif Omar
The Nigerien authorities have announced the closure of the flow valves for Nigerien crude oil to the Beninese port of Sèmé-Kpodji. A decision taken a few days after the arrest by the Beninese authorities of five Nigeriens who were attending an oil loading operation in the same port.
“Whatever it’s going to cost us, we’re going to pay for it. We can’t sit back while our oil is being stolen by other people, because we’re not present where it’s loaded ” Nigerien Oil Minister Mahaman Moustapha Barké declared Thursday evening on state television.
The Nigerien minister spoke from the sites of Melek and Koulele where he went to order the closing of the valves.
“As long as Benin and the Wapco company do not agree so that Niger can witness the loading and control what is being loaded, we no longer agree to open these valves,” he added.
Handing over the keys to the closed valves to those responsible for the security services of the two sites, the minister warned that “anyone who violates these instructions must be prepared to assume the heaviest consequences”, specifying that the decision to close the valves was not not been “taken lightly”.
The Beninese authorities have not yet reacted to this decision.
Following the arrest, on June 5, of five of its nationals at the Beninese port of Sèmé-Kpodji, while they were witnessing the loading of crude oil onto a ship, Niger threatened to stop the shipment of its oil to Benin.
According to Niamey, the five people arrested went to Benin at the invitation of the Chinese company Wapco which ensures the delivery of Nigerien crude oil to the international market. Since last April, Nigerien crude oil began to be sold on the international market through the Beninese port of Sèmé-Kpodji connected to Nigerien oil sites located in the Diffa region (East) by a 2,000-kilometer pipeline.
Relations between Niger and Benin have been tense since the coup d’état of July 26, with the closure of the common border between the two countries following sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS).
Accusing Benin of hosting French military bases on its territory, Niger refused to open its border after the lifting of ECOWAS sanctions. In interviews with Anadolu, Beninese and French officials denied any presence of French military bases in Benin.
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