OT Locally produced oil may actually be beneficial.
allafrica.com
The Blessings Of Locally Produced Oil
Panafrican News Agency
November 29, 2000
Yahya el Hassan
Khartoum
"It is one of our greatest achievements since independence. No, it is our greatest," famous columnist Abullatif el Bouni writes.
"To tell the truth, it is tantamount to political independence," he says about Sudan reaching self-sufficiency in fuel oil for the first time in history.
Oil drawn from fields in the south and west now meets all the country's daily demand of 50,000 barrels a day and provides for an export of 130,000 barrels a day of the crude.
Pointing to the then finance minister Abdulraheem Hamdi, President Omar el Bashir had once said: "This man has to provide two million dollars every morning: One million to buy oil and the other to meet the requirements of the civil war."
Now the finance minister is not worried about the oil bill. Nor does he fear a depreciation of the value of the local currency.
The dinar, which used to fall at the slightest frown of the green back, has been standing firm at 258 to the US dollar for over a year now.
There is also talk about a surplus in the external trade balance for the first time in decades. A recent finance ministry report spoke about a surplus of 90 million dollars in the country's trade balance.
"If it were not for the brave decision to exploit oil, our budget deficit could have been horrible under the current international increase in oil prices," Hamdi told PANA.
Though still expensive for the consumers (100 dinars per litre), the locally produced fuel has resolved a lot of social problems.
Motorists no longer need to queue for oil at gas stations. On some occasions in the past, motorists had to stay awake all night waiting for gas shipments to arrive from Port Sudan, the country's Red Sea harbour.
Public transport has now improved a great deal. Commuters face no problem travelling around the country. The abundant supply at the stations has encouraged investments in the transport business.
Even ordinary citizens are joining the trade. All along the country's roadways, vendors can be seen waving to motorists with canteens full of benzene or gasoline.
The decision to start with the exploitation of the little oil in Sudan, discovered in 1982, has encouraged hesitant oil firms to look for exploration concessions elsewhere in the country.
The country's verified reserve is 800 million barrels. But the energy ministry says this can jump to 3,000 million barrels.
It recently put three new zones for exploration: in the north-west near the border with Chad, along the White Nile around the town of Rabak, and in Tokar Delta on the Red Sea.
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