Niger has suspended oil exports to China through a pipeline that transits neighboring Benin, escalating tensions between the two West African nations. 

Niger’s Oil Minister Mahamane Moustapha Bako announced the move on Thursday while overseeing the shutdown of a section of the 1,243-kilometer pipeline at the Agadem oilfield in eastern Niger. 

The pipeline was built to transport oil to China as part of a $400 million agreement with China National Petroleum Corp. The friction between the two West African neighbours, Niger and Benin, reached a boiling point back in May After Benin blocked crude oil exports from its port. 

Benin has demanded that Niger's military junta reopen its land border to Beninese goods and normalize relations.

Earlier this month, Benin detained five Niger nationals for allegedly entering the Seme-Kpodji pipeline terminal under false pretences. Niger rejected the accusations, asserting the group was supervising crude loading as per their agreement.

“We can’t just sit back while our oil is stolen by other people, because we’re not there where it’s loaded,” Minister Barke Bako told workers in a televised address, justifying the country’s recent decision to halt oil flows, according to a state television broadcast.

The dispute stems from a July 2023 coup in Niger, after which the regional bloc ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Niger for over six months and lifted them in February 2024. Despite this, Niger has maintained its border closure on Beninese goods.