Taiwan premier to visit Chad to secure oil supply

Jul 31, 2006, 3:18 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan, seeking to secure an oil supply from Africa, will send its premier to Chad next week to make sure the war-torn country will honour its promise to sell oil to Taiwan, a newspaper said on Monday.

Premier Su Tseng-chang will lead a delegation to Chad on August 6. Delegation members will include trade officials and Pan Wen-yen, chairman of the state oil monopoly Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC), the Economic Daily News said.

Chad granted Taiwan's China National Petroleum Corp 25 per cent exploration rights in 'Block H' oil field in 2003, but delayed signing the oil exploration contract with Taiwan's CPC until January this year, triggering speculation that Chad was warming up to China.

Last October, CPC opened a representative office in Chad and donated 3.79 million US dollars to Chad in the name of developing cultural activities and a power industry, the Economic Daily News said.

In January, Chad finally signed the four-year contract. Under the deal, CPC and Chadian oil companies would drill for oil in three areas, including the Lake Chad basin and the Doba basin, with CPC planning to invest 30 million US dollars in the project.

But the joint exploration was suspended in April when civil war broke out in Chad.

Su's visit is to speed up the oil exploration and to prevent Chad from signing any deals with China when Hu Deping, vice chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce, visits Africa in early August, the daily said.

The paper said Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian may include Chad when on his stops when he visits Africa in November.

Taiwan is recognized by only 25 mostly-small nations and six of them are in Africa.

China, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province, has been wooing Taiwan's diplomatic allies to switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

Chad produces around 160,000 barrels per day, a relatively small amounty, but its value has grown for the country as world oil prices have soared to near-historic highs.