U.S. official in Chad for talks on oil

By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published April 25, 2006
original


N'DJAMENA, Chad -- A top U.S. official was in Chad Tuesday to discuss the impasse over oil supplies caused by a soured World Bank deal, a news report said.

Donald Yamamoto, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, is in Chad to discuss, among other things, the oil crisis, Radio France Internationale said.

On April 17, Chad extended by two weeks a deadline to cut off oil production unless the World Bank released frozen oil royalties from an escrow account, or an oil consortium led by Exxon Mobil and Chevron paid out $100 million into the state's coffers.

Yamamoto has not officially been mandated to negotiate between Chad and the World Bank, however.

Earlier this month, Chad, which produced approximately 249,000 barrels per day in 2005, said it would turn off the taps April 18 unless the World Bank acted. The World Bank froze the funds and loans to Chad Jan. 12 because it said N'Djamena, by changing an oil revenue law that carved out a portion of money from oil exports for social programs, had broken an agreement on oil revenues with the bank.

Under the deal, Chad was to set aside 10 percent from oil revenues for future generations and programs such as health and education. In exchange, the bank agreed to fund a $3.7 billion, 620-mile pipeline to carry crude from Chad via Cameroon to the Gulf of Guinea for export.

The country's oil reserves -- estimated at 2 billion barrels -- are being developed by ExxonMobil, Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas. Production came on-stream in 2003 and landlocked Chad began to export oil via the pipeline in 2004.