China courts oil-rich Nigeria

Chinese President Hu Jintao has began a visit to oil-rich Nigeria, where his nation is striking deals to secure the supplies of petroleum and other resources needed to fuel the world’s fastest-growing economy.

To a 21-gun salute, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo welcomed Hu at the airport yesterday in the capital, Abuja, where the Chinese leader’s plane landed in a first sub-Saharan Africa stop in a tour that has included the US, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

Nigeria is the top African producer of crude and the seventh largest in the world, normally pumping 2.5 million barrels per day.

In January, China’s state-controlled oil firm CNOOC announced it had reached a deal to pay 2.3 billion dollars for a 45% state in a Nigerian offshore oil field.

With 130 million people, Nigeria is also a major market for Chinese-produced goods.

In the last five years, China’s trade with Africa has grown fourfold to $40bn (€32bn) in 2005.

China’s growth has sparked a global race with the West for markets and industrial resources. Africa has become a frontier of opportunity for the world’s most populous country and its fastest growing economy.

That has meant opportunity, aid and even key diplomatic support – China is a veto-wielding UN Security Council member – to some governments shunned by the West, like Sudan and Zimbabwe.

Hu is scheduled to head in a few days to Kenya, in East Africa.