Celebrations planned for Sudan's first oil export
KHARTOUM, Aug 26 (AFP) - President Omar al-Beshir will lead celebrations next week to mark Sudan's first shipment of oil overseas, the start of an enterprise that is expected to boost the country's flagging economy.
Officials at the energy and mining ministry said delegations from Egypt, Ethiopia and Chad would attend the ceremony at the specially built Beshair harbour on the Red Sea on Monday, when a tanker loaded with 600,000 barrels of Sudanese crude is to set sail for Singapore.
The ministry's Secretary General Hassan Mohamed al-Tom told reporters that the multinational firm Trafigura had been contracted to market the oil abroad.
Trafigura, which has 31 offices around the world, will market the oil on behalf of the Sudanese government and a consortium of Chinese, Canadian, Malaysian and Sudanese companies operating in Sudan.
A one billion dollar, 1,600-kilometer (1,000-mile) oil export pipeline, inaugurated in May, was built to carry oil from the Higleig oilfields in the southwest to Beshair.
The pipeline was built by a consortium of Chinese, German, Argentine, British and Malaysian companies, according to ministry sources.
Tom dismissed threats by the opposition to blow up the pipeline, noting that it is underground and "fully secured." |
