Despite its oil wealth, Chad has been facing an enormous debt burden. Global Commodity trading house Glencore is one of the largest creditors to Chad through an oil-for-cash loan. Last year, the Chadian government requested that Glencore suspend payments on its oil-for-cash loan. The oil producer now also relies on oil-for-cash loadings from Chinese creditors.
Chad holds around 1.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, according to BP‘s Energy Outlook 2020, making it the 10th-largest oil reserve holder in Africa. Oil accounts for almost 90% of the country‘s export revenues.