The $4 billion Chad pipeline has been completed one year ahead of the original schedule, extending 660 miles from the oilfields in southern Chad to a Floating, Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessel located seven miles offshore Kribi, Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea.

Construction will continue on the central treating facilities in Chad and full production is targeted to start by the end of the year.

When all three fields servicing the pipeline are on track production is expected to reach 225,000 barrels per day, creating a new revenue source for Chad and further opening the untapped west African oil resources.

The consortium developing the project is comprised of subsidiaries of ExxonMobil (operator, 40%), Petronas (35%) and ChevronTexaco (25%).