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Sudan Becomes A Major Source Of Sweet Crudes; May Produce Over 1.15M B/D By 2010:.

Article Excerpt
Sudan is turning out to be a major oil province and may soon become a producer of natural gas. Its crude oil production, mainly involving sweet grades, is expected to increase to 650,000 b/d in 2006 from 500,000 b/d, Minister of State for Energy & Mining Angelina Teny told the Sudan Development Programme Summit in Dubai on Feb. 13. A member of her team subsequently told APS Sudan's production will rise to more than 1.15m b/d by 2010.

Ms Teny told the conference participants that Sudan now had a crude oil pipeline capacity of 1m b/d. Seven of its 21 blocks are producing oil. Two other blocks, one in Northern Darfur and another in the east, are under negotiation.

PetroSA of South Africa was expected to sign an exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) at the end of February with the state-owned NOC, Sudapet, for Block 14 in the north. PetroSA will operate the block and the 2D seismic survey and microbial geochemical sampling will be conducted in mid-2006. The company has shot a gravity/magnetic survey and identified two promising basins, Mourdi and Misaha.

Khartoum hopes to exploit offshore natural gas discoveries close to Port Sudan. Ms Teney told the Dubai conference: "We want to hear from people keen to explore for natural gas" (see following pages).

The global perspective for petroleum could not have been better for those EPSA holders from Asia which are producing oil in Sudan, as world prices for sweet crude oils are over $60/barrel. Saudi Arabia's oil industry on Feb. 24 came close to the most serious...