Nigeria has signed oil and gas infrastructure agreements worth $80 billion with Chinese companies, the West African country’s state oil company said on Thursday. Nigeria, an OPEC member, which was until recently Africa’s biggest oil producer, relies on crude sales for around 70% of national income, but its oil and gas infrastructure is in need of updating, Reuters reported. The country’s four refineries have never reached full production because of poor maintenance, causing it to rely on expensive imported fuel for 80% of energy needs. These problems have been exacerbated by a series of attacks on oil and gas facilities by militants in the southern Niger Delta energy. Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who also heads the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has been in China since Sunday for a roadshow aimed at raising investment. “Memorandum of understandings worth over $80 billion to be spent on investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream have been signed with Chinese companies,” NNPC announced in a statement.
