Ghana signed a US$1 billion loan agreement with China Development Bank for a gas project between Ghana National Gas and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec; SNP.NYSE, SNP.LSE, 6000028.SH, 0386.HKG), as well as information technology projects, Bloomberg reported. The US$850 million project will help complete a 45 kilometer pipeline to bring natural gas to the shore. Ghana will then send about 13,000 barrels of oil per day to China at market prices, according to the Ghanaian vice president, John Dramani Mahama. However, Mahama said that oil is not being used as collateral for the loan and the credit will not be paid off with natural resources. While the vice president said that Western aid agencies such as the World Bank and IMF have been the country’s traditional partners, “[t]he process for accessing World Bank and IMF credit has been unfortunately quite tiresome and comes with a lot of strings,” he said.