Two major foreign oil companies, US based ChevronTexaco and and Malaysian Petronas, had been ordered by Prseident Idriss Deby to leave Chad over alleged non-payment of taxes. The imposed 24-hour deadline has expired.
Chevron said that it has fully complied with tax demands and has received no "official notification" to leave.
Petronas has not commented.
While it is not clear how the authorities plan to enforce the expulsion order, the two companies that together account for 60 percent of Chad's production have denied the charge of non-payment.
Mahamat Bechir Okormi, Chad's minister for state control and ethics, said that Chevron and Petronas had to pay tax but arranged with a minister in order to get a tax exemption. In Chad, only the national assembly can exempt companies.
Three government ministers have been sacked and may be prosecuted and Oil Minister Mahamat Nasser Hassane has been dismissed.
With the expuslion of Chevron and Petronas, the only remaining company in the consortium which handles the country's oil production would be ExxonMobil.
Since ExxonMobil runs the pipeline and the other two companies have few staff in the country, production is unlikely to be seriously affected, especially since President Deby said that his government would take control of the remaining reserves.
The government had recently evinced its interest in joining the consortium.
Following Chad's revival of diplomatic relations with Beijing, observers feel that the firms may have been expelled to make room for Chinese oil companies. If true, this move will mark a turning point for realtions in this region.
Earlier this year, Chad threatened to stop oil production if the US led consortium did not pay up several months' worth of oil revenues.
Chad also had a run-in with the World Bank over allocation of oil revenue spending.
Rows over Chad's oil revenues have been simmering for months and the recent decision of expulsion has sent shock waves around the oil industry.
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