Mark, news about AKSEF...Reuters...I don't have the link...got it from my broker. Best of Luck, Where'd He Go?
08/28 09:05 INTERVIEW-Sudan pipeline key to future oil plans
By Alistair Lyon
KHARTOUM, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Sudan expects to complete its new oil pipeline on schedule, with the first crude from
its Unity Field due to arrive at a terminal being built at Port Sudan on the Red Sea by June 1999, an official said.
"It's a very tight schedule, but we hope to finish on time," Hassan al-Tom, director general at the ministry of energy
and mining, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
He said the pipeline project, costing more than $1 billion, along with a $600 million refinery under construction north
of Khartoum, would save Sudan $300 million a year in oil imports.
Sudan, whose efforts to develop an oil industry have long been hampered by civil war and lack of financing, will be
able to produce about 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) initially from its Unity Field in the Bentiu region, Tom said.
He said the oil fields were secure and outside the area where the main rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army is
operating, though two pro-government militias were feuding to the south.
Tom said Sudan's proven recoverable reserves now stood at 750 million barrels, but more exploration work and
studies were needed to establish the country's full oil potential.
The 1,600-km (1,000-mile) 28-inch pipeline from the Unity Field to Port Sudan will have an initial capacity of 150,000
bpd, to be expanded to 250,000 bpd by 2002 by adding more pumping stations. Further expansion to the pipe's full
capacity of 400,000 bpd will depend on new discoveries.
The pipeline and terminal are being built by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium
of Chinese, Malaysian, Canadian and Sudanese companies with concessions in the Unity and Hijleg areas.
GNPOC is supervising exploration, development, production and pipeline construction. Later it will operate the oil
fields and the pipeline, with the foreign partners exporting oil to get a return on their investment.
"The government wants to use its share for a 50,000 bpd refinery north of Khartoum for domestic needs," Tom said.
Construction of the refinery, a joint venture between the energy ministry and the China National Petroleum Corp
(CNPC), began in April and is due to be completed by the end of next year, serving the Khartoum, Gezira and White
Nile areas.
Tom said the project was financed mainly by the Chinese, with Sudan paying the local component and contracted to
pay the rest of its 50 percent share from refinery profits or in oil.
"We are looking for the day when we are self-sufficient," said Tom. "It could be by 2000 or the end of 1999."
He said it would take about 15 years to recover the cost of the pipeline from transit fees that would be charged to
users.
He said Sudan's domestic consumption of about 50,000 bpd was expected to grow to 70,000 or 80,000 bpd by
2010.
The partners in GNPOC are CNPC with a 40 percent stake, Malaysia's Petronas <PETR.KL> with 40 percent, Canada's
Arakis <AKSEF.O>, now being taken over by another Canadian firm Talisman <TLM.TO>, with 25 percent, and
state-owned Sudan Petroleum with five percent.
Tom said three foreign companies, Petronas, OMV of Austria and Canada's IPC, were exploring in Block 5A,
southeast of the bigger Unity Field, adding that it might take two or three years to start production there.
Arab Gulf Company is working on a small field named Adar Yale, but Tom said the government wanted to enlarge the
concession area and invite big companies to form a consortium to develop it.
France's Total <TOTF.PA> holds a concession in the Jonglei area further south, but the civil war has halted activity in
the area.
Tom said construction of the pipeline would spark new interest by foreign oil companies in Sudan, but U.S. sanctions
were likely to deter American companies such as Chevron <CHV.N>, which invested heavily in the exploration
starting in the 1970s.
"The pipeline is a major breakthrough for investors," he said. "We have received more than 24 applications from
firms wanting to work in Sudan...The main problem is economic, related to oil prices, so far the price is okay, we and
the investors can survive. " |
