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China’s Sinochem Group has signed a deal with Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol, to buy crude oil for 10 years.

According to Reuters, Sinochem Group will purchase up to four or five cargoes of Angolan crude oil per month. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Angola often rewards China with generous oil deals to repay post-civil war loans that have reached about $20 billion. China is already one of the largest buyers of Angolan crude oil. Last year China agreed to lend $2 billion to Sonangol to expand oil and gas projects.

The current deal represents a major boost for Angola as major oil producers – such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran – fight for market share in the face of declining oil prices, which have fallen by over 60 percent since last year.

Just like other oil-dependent countries, Angola has been facing a foreign currency crisis and has slashed its budget by nearly 30 percent and it looks to borrow $25 billion.

In June, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to ask for a two-year moratorium on debt repayments as well as financing for a variety of projects, including a $4.5 billion hydropower scheme.

Chibuike Oguh is Financial Nigeria's frontier markets analyst