Chad: 'US must pay $100m'
2006-04-15 19:15
N'Djamena - Chad's oil minister has said he wants an American-led oil consortium to pay the country at least $100m by Tuesday, or the country would stop pumping oil.
Chad's oil minister Mahamat Nasser Hassan made the demand on Saturday. The payment, if made, would circumvent a World Bank freeze on oil profits.
The World Bank has frozen oil profits from a pipeline in Chad, saved in a London escrow account, in a dispute over how the country's oil revenues are spent.
Hassan said: "We want at least $100m paid (by the oil consortium) by Tuesday midday.
"We have asked for the companies to put the money directly in the state treasury account.
"If they do not agree by Tuesday midday, we will stop oil production."
As well as freezing the escrow account, the World Bank suspended loans to Chad in January.
The bank said Chad had breached an agreement when it changed a law to access oil profits meant to benefit the poor.
Chad produces between 160 000 and 170 000 barrels of crude oil a day.
The country threatened to stop production on Friday if it failed to reach an agreement with the bank to end the dispute.
The central African country is in a state of heightened alert after rebels attacked the capital N'Djamena on Thursday, in the boldest assault yet by fighters who have vowed to end President Idriss Deby's 16-year rule.
Deby has, in the past, said Chad needed the oil revenues to bolster national security.