Chad said it intends to renegotiate its contract with a US-Malaysian consortium that manages oil extraction in the country, in a bid to increase its oil revenue.

President Idriss Deby told his government to renegotiate the convention it signed in 1998 with a consortium composed of ExxonMobil and Chevron-Texaco of the United States and Petronas of Malaysia so that Chad "enters into production and profits more" from the oil.

"President Idriss Deby Itno placed particular importance on the fact that Chad must profit fully from all its oil, mining and other resources," said a statement released yesterday.

A source in the oil ministry, who asked not be named, said the state would use the Chad Hydrocarbons Company (SHT) to try to enter into the consortium.

"Chad wants to join the consortium via the Chad Hydrocarbons Company to watch over the interests of the state," the source said.

The SHT was created in July with a mission to "take control of the oil sector and increase the state's stake in the income by joining the operators".

Direct participation

Contacted by AFP , the international consortium declined to comment on the move.

Oil has been flowing since 2003 in the Doba basin in southern Chad, which was until recently was dominated by agriculture and the crisis-hit cotton industry.

In 2004 Chad, which produces less than 200,000 barrels of oil a day, saw its gross domestic product leap 40 percent after oil production began.

"The aim of these negotiations is to allow Chad to participate directly in its oil production instead of sitting back and earning just 12.5 percent of the total revenue of our oil sales" as agreed under the convention, Deby's ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement party said.

Deby's move comes after Chad last month signed a deal with the World Bank that stipulates that the African country must devote 70 percent of its oil revenue to reduce poverty, notably by improving health conditions, infrastructure and education.