Opened in 2000, the Khartoum refinery was built by a subsidiary of the Chinese oil company CNPC, and had a price tag of $350 million.

ASIAN companies are leading the rush to exploit Sudan’s black gold. In the vanguard are the Chinese. Through its state-owned China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), Beijing has invested billions of dollars, and currently controls around 40 percent of Sudan’s oil industry.

Like the United States, China is seeking to diversify its sources of energy away from the Middle East, and Sudan has become one of its most important suppliers. Last year, China sourced up to seven percent of its oil needs from Sudan, accounting for around 50 percent of the African state’s exports of crude.
The Khartoum refinery, opened at Al Jaily in 2000, was built by a subsidiary of CNPC at a cost of $350 million. CNCP is also the leading shareholder (40 percent) in the largest oil consortium in Sudan, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC).

The consortium has developed the former Chevron fields, discovered new ones, and built the 994-mile crude pipeline from Higleig to Port Sudan that enabled Sudan to start exporting oil in 1999.

Apart from China, other leading destinations for Sudan’s medium-sweet Nile Blend are India and Malaysia. The national oil companies of both nations have interests in a number of oil exploration blocks in Sudan, and are shareholders in GNPOC. Petronas of Malaysia holds a 30 percent stake, India’s ONGC Videsh 25 percent, and the Sudanese national oil company, Sudapet, five percent.

Petronas and ONGC have been competing with each other in the downstream refining business, with the Indian firm coming out on top. ONGC has been awarded the concession to build the new refinery at Port Sudan with a capacity to process 100,000 bpd. Initially, Petronas thought its own bid had been successful.

The facility will be provided on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, and is due to be completed within three years. Indian and European banking and financial institutions will contribute towards funding the project, which is expected to cost $1.2 billion. According to ONGC chairman Subir Raha, the project involves the largest non-recourse finance ever raised by an Indian company.

ONGC recently completed a 460-mile pipeline to Port Sudan from the Khartoum refinery for the export of oil by-products. The $200 million link was inaugurated at the end of last year.

Another Indian company, Videocon Industries, last year signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sudanese government to invest $100 million for a 76 percent stake in an oil field.

Western companies present in Sudan include Lundin Oil of Sweden and OMV of Austria. Following the official signing of the CPA in January last year, the French oil giant Total, Marathon Oil Corporation, and the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Company all renewed their exploration rights in southern Sudan.

Total and the British oil and gas exploration company White Nile have made rival claims for the right to explore the oil-rich Ba block in southern Sudan, which is reported to contain around five billion barrels of oil.