PetroChina International and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday in Abuja signed an oil supply pact, with the latter selling 30,000 barrels of crude a day to the former.

Si Bingjun, managing director of PetroChina, and Edmund Daukoru, special adviser to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Energy and Oil Matters, signed the contract on behalf of their respective sides. The contract is for a period of one year and is also at the prevailing cost of crude at the international market.

Si said China and Nigeria should continue to have cooperation given the healthy trade and stable development among the two countries.

He said China has submitted bids for two oil blocks in the 2005 licensing opening in August.

According to him, China is considering building a hydro-station in Mambilla and has already expressed interest to take over the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals as core investors in the event of privatization.

The contact which is renewable after one year will fetch the NNPC about 800 million US dollars.

According to the Nigerian presidential adviser, Nigeria will continue to offer China opportunity to meet its high demand of energy.

He said President Obasanjo has approved four oil blocks to China aimed at assisting it to secure more crude to meet the needs of its expanding economy.

Recent years have witnessed fast growth of foreign trade and economic cooperation between China and the West African country. In 2004, the bilateral trade between the two countries stood at more than 2 billion US dollars.

Source: Xinhua