Sudan to double its oil refining capacity
February 18, 2005
By Maher Chmaytelli
Khartoum - Sudan planned to double its oil refining capacity in three years to handle increased production after the east African nation reached an agreement to end its 21-year civil war, energy minister Awad Ahmed al-Jazz said yesterday.
A new 100 000 barrel-a-day refinery would be built in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, and the capacity would be increased at two existing refineries, one in Port Sudan and one in the capital, Khartoum, the minister said in Algiers, where he was attending an African oil conference.
Talks were under way with India's Oil & Natural Gas, China's Sinopec, Malaysia's Petronas and an unidentified Turkish company to build the new refinery, he said.
Sudan expects crude oil production to increase 45 percent to 500 000 barrels a day from August 2005, when a group led by China National Petroleum will start pumping at new fields.
"Talks with Oil & Natural Gas, Sinopec, Petronas and a Turkish company about the new refinery have gone a long way and we will probably chose one of them," al-Jazz said.
"Construction will take three years after the signing of the agreement, hopefully this year."
China Petroleum, China's largest oil company, would complete in the last quarter of the year works to raise the capacity of the Khartoum refinery to 100 000 barrels a day from 70 000 barrels, he said.
He said the Sudanese energy ministry was working on the old refinery in Port Sudan to increase its capacity to 60 000 barrels a day from 25 000 barrels.
Along with the Asian producers already in Sudan, more than 10 oil companies had expressed interest in working there since the government and southern rebels signed an accord in January to end the war.
Nigeria to auction oil-drilling rights
Algiers - Nigeria, Africa's largest crude oil producer, would hold its first auction for oil-drilling rights in late February, offering 80 plots of land for exploration, the country's presidential energy adviser, Edmund Daukoru, said yesterday.
It would be the largest number of plots to be offered in one licensing round in Nigeria and the first time the country would hold an auction to select the winners, he said in Algiers at an African oil conference.
The plots are located onshore and offshore. Daukoru said the winners should be announced by August.
Nigeria, which is a member Opec, the oil producers' cartel, hopes an open selection process will help attract foreign oil companies.
Oil accounts for as much as 95 percent of the export revenue of Nigeria. It wants to raise production from 2.3 million to 4.5 million barrels a day by 2010.
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