Nigeria and China's talks over Beijing's bid to buy 6 billion barrels of
the OPEC member's oil reserves have been stalled for months due to a
dispute over price, a senior Nigerian government official said on Monday.
Last year, China offered to invest as much as $50 billion to get a large
stake in Africa's biggest energy sector, a bid which included incursions
into some oil blocks held by Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron.
"We have made our position clear. We told them we want a fair market value
for our oil." Emmanuel Egbogah, Nigeria's presidential adviser on energy,
told Reuters in the capital Abuja.
He did not say how much Nigeria was seeking for its oil, but reiterated
that China was not likely to get all the reserves it wanted.
The last reported talks between the two countries occurred during Chinese
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's trip to Nigeria in January. Nigeria is
reportedly still open to talks with China.
Meanwhile, Industry executives have said Nigeria is using the possibility
of a Chinese bid for its oil as leverage in difficult contract renewal
negotiations with its existing Western oil partners.
Exxon is presently the only one to acquire a renewal for its three shallow
water oil licences, which currently produces about 580,000 barrels daily,
for an additional 20 years.
Although, that agreement has not been officially signed off by Nigeria's
oil minister,a local newspaper ThisDay reported last week. Mr. Egbogah
declined to comment on the story.
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