N’DJAMENA, Chad, 8 October 2006 — Chad and oil giants Chevron Corp. and Petronas have resolved a month-old dispute over taxes, officials said.
In a memorandum signed Friday, the two companies agreed to pay $289 million (228 million euros) in taxes once the Cabinet endorses the new memorandum next Thursday, Oil Minister Emmanuel Nadingar told The Associated Press.
Finance Minister Abbas Mahamat Tolli and Frederick Neilson, Chevron’s Africa director, representing the two companies, signed the memorandum, which amends an earlier agreements on tax breaks. On Aug. 26, President Idriss Deby gave the two companies, which are part of the African country’s oil production consortium that is led by ExxonMobil, 24 hours to leave Chad.
Deby said that they had not paid $450 million (355 million euros) in taxes and his country would assume responsibility for their oil production. Nadingar told The Associated Press that both parties negotiated the tax bill Deby claimed down to the $289 million figure. California-based Chevron Corp. and Malaysia’s Petronas do not have staff based in Chad and have delegated to Exxon Mobil the responsibility of managing the day-to-day affairs of the consortium in Chad.