Chad Postpones Halting Oil Production in Conflict with British Bank

Chad has decided to postpone the date for halting its oil production, a threat made to protest against the freezing of its funds by a British bank at the request of the World Bank.

Chad will shut down its oil production at the end of April if the World Block fails to unfreeze its Citibank account in London,
which contains millions in oil revenues, Communications Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said.

On Friday the government here set Tuesday, April 18, as the date for turning off the taps over the row, which began in January when the World Bank first suspended an aid package, then had the Citibank account frozen, in punishment for Chad's sidestepping of strict laws on how it spends its oil revenues.

Doumgour said the Chadian government was acting in response to a request from the United States, which it said had offered to mediate in the standoff.

"The Chadian government has decided to wait to turn off the taps until the end of American mediation", he said in a statement.