Chad and Glencore to meet in Paris today to discuss debt – gov’t sources

Chadian government officials will meet Glencore executives in Paris today to discuss restructuring the country’s debt, two senior Chadian government sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Sunday.

Chad has been trying renegotiate its hefty external commercial debt to Glencore, which eats up nearly all of its oil profits – the country’s main source of revenue.

One of the sources said Glencore was open to the idea of rescheduling.

A Chadian government spokesman and a Glencore spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for official comment.

Sticking point

Chad has been on a collision course with its top creditor, as it wants to divert oil from the Swiss trading house to U.S. energy company ExxonMobil from the new year amid the dispute over the debt restructuring.

Chad wants to hand over crude oil marketing rights currently held by Glencore under a $1.4 bn loan agreement to Exxon, the biggest oil producer in the central African country.

A sticking point has been a request from Chad for another grace period on principal repayment.

The officials said this would be discussed today.

Hit by drought, a refugee crisis and a costly military campaign against Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Chad has had loans from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank, with another $12.9 bn of pledged funding as of September from public and private donors for a 2017-2021 development plan.

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