China's state companies advance billion-dollar oil and banking deals while India's plans are now on hold
The Lagos State government, the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation
signed an US$8 billion deal this month for a 300,000 barrel-per-day
oil refinery and a liquefied petroleum gas refinery that will
produce 500,000 tonnes a year in the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Lagos
will provide land and infrastructure for the project; the CSCEC
will provide 80% of the finance and the NNPC will raise the rest.
This plan, however, worries India's companies in Nigeria, especially
ONGC Mittal Energy (OMEL), the consortium created by New Delhi's
state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the Mittal Group
(AAC Vol 3 No 2). OMEL had sought assurances of support from the
NNPC and the Nigerian government in December last year for its
plans to build a refinery in the Lekki Free Trade Zone but the
deal has gone awry....
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