AWAD AHMED AL JAZ Minister of Energy and Mining

What is your current overview of Sudan’s oil industry?

We are on a positive track. We are working in different regions of the country and each year we will add more to our production. Hopefully this will be reflected in the wealth and development of the economy.

We now have four pipelines for crude and two for oil products. We have three sea ports devoted to oil export, two for crude, Bashair 1 and Bashair 2, and another at Al Khair for refined products. These are government projects, but being financed by companies that are working upstream.

We have finished upgrading the Khartoum refinery. We started with output of 50,000 bpd, now we are approaching 100,000 bpd. We have signed an agreement to build a refinery producing 150,000 bpd on the eastern coast, and we are planning to build another at Kosti so as to satisfy the demand for oil products in the southern region.

What is your position with regard to attracting foreign investment in the sector?

As oil and gas is the leading sector, we are working hard to call different investors of all nationalities to come in. We are in a hurry to get the maximum results.

We offer our potential, we make it an open competition, and we work with those who bring good offers. There are no restrictions on any country, and there is no siding with any one. We just make the information available for everybody that is interested. We give them a chance to look at it, and they bring their offers. Those that bring the best offers have the best chance.

Would you like to see U.S investors coming in?

We have a number of American individuals working in the oil sector. But the American government has imposed sanctions on Sudan. We try to ask them, “What is the problem? Sudan is not harming anybody, Sudan welcomes everybody.”

Regardless of the sanctions, we do not have a problem. We have got investors coming here from all over the world to do business: the Arab world, China, Malaysia, India, Russia, Japan, England, France, Germany, Italy, even South America. They bring their money, their personnel and their machinery. We have a variety of technologies and capabilities in operation.

If America decides to lift the sanctions, the doors will be open for their companies, business men and women. We feel that Sudan is a place of cooperation and high potential.