Chadian President Idriss Deby on Saturday ordered U.S. energy giant Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas to leave his country within 24 hours for failing to pay tax as regulated, report reaching here from Chadian capital N'djamena said.

Deby told a government meeting that "the representatives of Chevron and Petronas must leave Chad and close their offices" as from Sunday for failing to honor their tax obligations, the Chadian national radio reported on Saturday.

Chad will manage to conduct oil exploitation only with Exxon before an agreement is reached with the two other partners, Deby said.

No immediate responses were available from the three foreign companies.

The move came against the backdrop of Chad's decision to create a new national oil company, which it said should become a partner in the country's existing oil producing consortium, led by U.S. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Petronas.

Petronas holds 35 percent of the consortium, Chevron 25 percent, and Exxon the remaining 40 percent.

"Chad must get involved in the production of its oil to control its wealth, and develop and increase its participation in the (consortium) pipeline," which has a capacity of sending 250,000 barrels per day to the Cameroon coast, Deby said.

Earlier this week, Deby asked the government to re-negotiate with the consortium on the 1998 agreement concerning exploitation of Chad's oil, in a bid to gain more profits.

Under the 1988 agreement with the foreign consortium, Chad takes 12.5 percent of the wellhead value of total production, before quality discount and the cost of sending it through the pipeline to Cameroon's Kribi terminal.

Relations between the landlocked African country and the consortium chilled since October 2004 when Deby criticized the consortium for failing to honor the 1998 agreement and selling Chad's oil at a low price.

Chad, which began pumping crude in 2003, produces around 160,000-170,000 barrels per day and continues to expand its scale of production.

Source: Xinhua