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Published 1st July 2010

Vol 3 (AAC) No 9


Nigeria

Beijing gazumps New Delhi

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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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.


Telecom troubles

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Plans to sell the state-owned Nigeria Telecommunications (Nitel) have floundered after China Unicom announced it would not be contributing to the front-running New Generation Con...


Oil - after independence

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The coming referendum is concentrating minds - Sudanese, Chinese and Western - on how the oil wealth will be shared

China's oil interests in Sudan will come under heavy scrutiny again as Khartoum and Juba start negotiations on sharing oil revenues after the independence referendum due in Janua...


A whale's tale

Tokyo has been caught trying to bribe African countries to gain support in its quest to overturn an international ban on commercial whaling

National pride comes before a fall. Reports that Tokyo has routinely bribed at least six African countries to vote in support of its whaling policy have embarrassed the Japanese ...


And the winner is...the CIF

The shadowy China International Fund believes that its political contacts will protect its deals after the election

The continuing power of Mines Minister Mahmoud Thiam and the prospect that he will wield influence after the second round of the presidential elections next month is good news fo...


Fishing for votes

Environmental campaigners such as Greenpeace have long protested about the links between voting at the International Whaling Commission and Japanese aid. That was before evidence...


Choose your poison

The shadowy joint venture between Angola's state-owned oil company and the nebulous China International Fund has reached a new stumbling block in its three-year-old pursuit of a ...


CIF sitting pretty in Guinea

As one of the anchors in the proposed trans-Guinea railway, the China International Fund may consider its position in Guinea unassailable. However, the Bellzone/CIF deal is alrea...



Pointers

Manoj Kohli

Chief Executive Officer (International Operations), Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile services company, at last acquired long-coveted African assets when it completed the purchase of Zain's Africa operations for US$10.7 billio...


Wang Jin-pyng

President, Legislative Yuan, Taiwan

Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, Taiwan has taken a low-key approach to international affairs in order to assuage China. For Taiwan's remaining African allies -...


Hamidon Ali

Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Malaysia

In early 2010, Hamidon Ali became President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which monitors UN progress on development goals. The ministerial session of the Cou...


Wang Gang

Vice-Chairman, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China

A pillar of China's diplomacy is the cultivation of links between the Chinese Communist Party and the ruling parties of its allies. The strategy has become more nuanced, as seen ...