OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2014. Chad is prepared to re-auction oil-extraction licenses it has revoked from China National Petroleum Corporation, if the company doesn't pay a fine for alleged environmental violations, the country’s Minister of Planning, Economy and International Cooperation, Kordje Bedoumra, said in an interview.

The dispute between the government of Chad and CNPC that has been brewing for over a year saw the African nation fine the Chinese state-owned firm USD 1.2 billion for alleged oil dumping. CNPC has said it won’t pay the fine and disputes the allegations against it.

CNPC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Despite the warning that the licenses could be sold to other investors, Mr. Bedourma said he still believed a solution with CNPC could be found “within the year.”

CNPC hasn't paid the fine and talks are still going on, Mr. Bedourma said at the margins of a conference organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

“We can solve this problem,” he said, and insisted that CNPC needs to pay the fine and address the alleged oil dumping that the Chad government accuses the company of having engaged in.

“If we disagree with them, the licenses will be sold” to competitors, Mr. Bedourma said, adding that in his opinion the government would easily find a new investor for the oil assets.

Mr. Bedourma said the refinery CNPC operates in partnership with Chad is functioning normally despite the continuing dispute on the extraction front.

On the contrary, Mr. Bedourma was full of praise for Glencore’s investment in his country. The commodities giant in June funded the country’s USD 1.3 billion acquisition of Chevron’s oil assets there.

“It is the best deal an African country can have,” he said.

Glencore will continue funding and acting as an agent on behalf the government of Chad in the operation of the oil asset for the next four years, Mr. Bedourma said.

He also defended his government’s decision to buy three MIG-29 aircraft from Ukraine earlier this year, despite facing criticisms over how it spends public money and grappling with widespread malnutrition and poverty.

“Of course we would prefer to spend the money on other things,” Mr. Bedourma said, but “security is a requirement” for the country’s position to improve.

“We decided it was the right thing to do,” he said, adding that the buildup of military capacity has allowed Chad to fend off Nigeria-based Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, threatening it from neighboring Cameroon, and intervene to restore peace in the Central African Republic and Mali.