Chad expels oil firms Chevron and Petronas

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

N'DJAMENA (AFP) — Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno ordered the foreign oil firms ChevronTexaco and Petronas to leave the country from Sunday for non-payment of taxes. "From tomorrow, representatives of Chevron and Petronas must leave Chad and close their offices for not respecting their commitment in accordance with clauses relating to the payment of taxes on the companies," Deby said Saturday.

The major US company ChevronTexaco and Petronas of Malaysia are two of three members of a consortium extracting the central African country's oil resources. Their departure would leave the US oil giant ExxonMobil and the Chadian government to tap the resources together "while waiting to find a solution with the two other partners", Deby said in a speech to government and political...