Chad is Africa's newest oil producer

Chad officials charge that the price the Exxon-Mobil, ChevronTexaco and Petronas consortium pays for its oil does not reflect soaring global prices.

The country, which produced 38.9 million barrels of oil in its first nine months of production, said it was appointing auditors to investigate.

The consortium said it could not comment until it had seen the details.

International call

"We found that things need to be clarified about the commitments of Exxon-Mobil, ChevronTexaco and Petronas," said Therese Mekombe, head of the committee monitoring Chad's oil revenues.

"The Chadian population has its ears and eyes on radios and televisions, following with great hope the rising price of Brent (crude oil) in the international market."

Chad's Oil Minister Youssef Abassallah added that all it wanted was to see its 1998 agreement with the consortium "strictly respected".

He said: "If this issue is not settled amicably, we are going to seek international arbitration.

Exports

The oil consortium said in a statement that in the absence of any direct communication from the Chadian government it was "not appropriate" for it to comment.

Yet it added that the "consortium had continuously complied with all project agreements in place with the government of Chad".

Oil exports from land-locked Chad first started in November 2003 after the creation of a pipeline to the coast through neighbouring Cameroon.

By 30 June of this year it had earned $70.8m (�39.5m) for the 33.1 million barrels it sold abroad.