Sudan Strikes New Oil Field
Panafrican News Agency (Dakar), March 12
By Yahya El Hassan
Sudan's Energy and Mining Ministry Monday announced the discovery of a new oil field in the south-west of the country. Under-Secretary Hassan Ali el Toam said the first well dug in the field has a proven productivity of 4,620 barrels of crude a day.
"This high productivity is an indication of the field's high reserve," he said, adding: "It is premature to determine the field's reserve."
A Consortium comprising the Austrian OMV, the Swedish Lundn, the Malaysian Petronas and Sudan's State-run Sudapet, struck the field.
It lies near the Higlig field that is already producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day, about 150,000 of which are exported, while the rest are consumed locally.
Toam said that more seismic surveys would be conducted in the area of the new find.
He disclosed that another consortium led by the Chinese National Petroleum Company has started digging an oil well within 72.000 square km in the Upper Nile region of South Eastern Sudan.
The consortium's concession area lies along the White Nile north and south of the Mellut oil field, which already produces 10,000 barrels of crude a day.
The group launched in November 2000 also includes the Qatar- based Gulf Oil, Thani Oil Company of the United Arab Emirates and Sudapet. |
