Niger’s oil exports under threat as FPL rebels warn of more attacks on China-funded pipeline

Niger’s oil exports are under threat, as armed rebels have warned of more attacks on the pipeline designed to carry oil to neighboring Benin, prompting a Chinese state-owned petroleum company to recently suspend all construction at the Agadem oilfield in eastern Niger.

Recent months have seen a series of attacks by the Patriotic Liberation Front (FPL) on the PetroChina-funded Nigerien pipeline designed to carry oil from Niger to Benin for international export. In late July, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said that “the security situation at the site has deteriorated” after “terrorist groups” carried out a “number of attacks targeting oil projects” on 12 June. The FPL has claimed responsibility for disabling part of the pipeline and warned of more attacks at a time when Niger’s crude oil exports are crucial to the country’s growth plans.

The rebel group, which calls for the reinstatement of Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum who was later overthrown in a coup, claimed it had targeted the pipeline on the night of 16 June “as a first warning to the junta in Niamey”. The FPL initially stood in opposition to Bazoum, but it is now fighting for his release and warned the military junta currently in power it is ready escalate its actions into a full-scale assault on the nearly 2,000 km-long pipeline. Though the pipeline’s oil is vital to the economies of both Niger and Benin, relations between the two West African neighbors have been tense since the July 2023 coup,