Chad may produce first oil in 2003

Chad is expected to produce its first barrel of oil in July 2003, a World Bank official said. Ali Khadr, the bank's Chad director, said oil would begin flowing at the Doba field in the south of the country.

It is expected to take a further two months for the oil to move through a 1050 km pipeline from Doba to the Cameroonian Atlantic port of Kribi. Another two months will then be needed to load the oil onto a tanker, meaning that Chadian oil would likely reach the world market in November 2003.