BEIJING, (Xinhua News Agency) -- China has signed a 23 billion US dollars deal with the new government of Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria to build three oil refineries and a petrochemical plant, reported Nigerian media.
Goodluck Jonathan came to power on May 6 after the death of the former president Umaru Yar'Adua.
The new government declared that it had signed an MOU with China State Construction Engineering Corporation on May 13 for building three refineries in Lagos, the commercial capital, in Kebbi state in the remote northeast, and Bayelsa. The refineries would have a combined capacity of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Chinese oil firms have shown growing presence in Nigeria with Sinopec (NYSE:SNP) (SNP.NYSE; 0386.HK; 600028.SH) securing a stake in Nigerian production when it took over Addax Petroleum in June 2009 at a cost of 7.2 billion US dollars.
CNOOC (CEO.NYSE; 0883.HK) is also to buy up to six billion barrels of Nigerian reserves. It has expressed interest in the 23 prime offshore fields where Shell, Total, Chevron and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) currently operate. If this were to succeed, it would double China's oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa. (Edited by Lin Fanjing, linfanjing@xinhua.org)
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