ONGC lays petro pipeline in Sudan
ONGC is laying a 741 kilometre pipeline to transport a variety of petroleum products to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. This is ONGC's first engineering project abroad.
A ground breaking ceremony at Khartoum in Sudan was also a path-breaker for ONGC, reports CNBC-TV18. The company is laying a 741 kilometre pipeline to transport a variety of petroleum products to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. This is ONGC's first engineering project abroad. It got the job by financing the entire cost of $156 million.
Sanjeev Kakran, Project Coordinator, ONGC Videsh said, "Sudan approached India to finance the project and we did it as a good will gesture."
ONGC has subcontracted the pipeline-laying work to Dodsal, a Khilachand group company based in Dubai. It has to be completed in nine months but ONGC hopes to shave off some of the execution time. The Sudanese now want ONGC to expand a refinery in Port Sudan in partnership with the Chinese.
Omer Mohamed Kheir, Secretary General, Sudanese Petroleum Corp said, "Indian companies have good expertise and technology. And we think they need to come to Sudan. There are lot of opportunities. India and Sudan have deep rooted relations."
One and a half hours from Khartoum by air in Southern Sudan are the Heglig oil fields, Sudan's biggest and the most productive so far. ONGC has invested close to a billion dollars for a 25% oil-sharing stake in a production company that has Sudanese, Malaysian and Chinese national petroleum companies as partners. The three blocks that ONGC jointly operates produce more oil than Bombay High.
Awad al-Jazz, Sudanese Minister for Energy and Mining said, "This country is open. Through your media we would like to throw open invitation to all India to invest here."
Sudan is in a hurry to make up for lost time. A civil war in Southern Sudan just across the Heglig Oil fields came to an end with an agreement with the rebels on Jan 9, after 21 years of fighting.
Sudan has large sedimentary basins that are unexplored yet and the presumption is that they contain huge deposits of oil. This year Sudan will produce half a million barrels. Because of its choppy relations with the West, Sudan has invited Asia's national oil companies, Petronas of Malaysia, China petroleum and ONGC to do the exploration and production. But Sudan says it has not closed the doors on anyone, everybody is free to compete on competence and prices.
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