A Final Oil Licensing Round in Sudan
The Sudan authorities are planning to award the last available oil concessions in the country this year.
Questioned last week by the Indian daily Hindustan Times, Sudanese oil minister Awad Ahmed Al Jaz indicated Sudan would put blocks 15, 12 and 13 on the auction block this year. They are the last concessions still up for grabs in the country.
Several groups, including India's ONGC Videsh and the China National Petroleum Corporation, have submitted bids for block 15 located on the coast between Port Sudan and the Eritrean border.
The area was explored successively in the past by Chevron, Total and Union Texas which identified two potential gas fields at Bashayer and Suakin. Also in the past, the Belarus firm Slavneft negotiated unsuccessfully for block 15, and Sonatrach signed a study agreement for the acreage in October, 2001.
Once block 15 is awarded Khartoum will start looking for buyers for block 12, a gigantic concession covering all of the northwest of the country, from Nyala to the Libyan frontier, and encompassing the Darfur area which has been the site of conflict between the local Fur and Zaghawa people and the Arab Janjaweed militia egged on by Khartoum.
Numerous companies have displayed an interest in block 12, and particularly Slavneft, Bulgaria's Technoexport, the Japan National Oil Corporation and RomPetrol. But no agreement has yet been signed and it is unlikely anybody will want to undertake exploration in the region until peace is restored.
The third and last concession Sudan would like to open to exploration this year – block 13 – stretches between Port Sudan and the Egyptian border. Last December Khartoum awarded block 14 to the state-owned South African group PetroSA. A huge permit, it covers half of the northern part of the country, running along the border with Egypt from the far west to the city of Wadi Halfa on the Nile.
- Database Search
- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
- In Depth For more specific information about the Lundin court case please visit the Unpaid Debt dossier.
