Sudan's oil industry

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Sudan's oil industry "produces 500,000 b/d, having doubled its volumes in just two years," Carola Hoyos wrote in the March 2, 2006, Sudan Tribune.

"China controls 40 percent of the oil development activity in the Sudan while Malaysia and India each have 30 and 25 percent stakes respectively in the oil industry." [1]

Sudan's "main western investors may have sold their holdings or at least suspended operations until politics improves, but Indian and Chinese companies, spurred on by their own oil-hungry governments, have shrugged off criticism and filled the vacuum," Hoyos wrote.

"Sudan has become particularly important to China, making up more than half of the world’s second largest oil consumer’s foreign oil reserves. CNPC holds a 40 per cent stake in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, the biggest player in Sudan’s oilfields.

"Meanwhile, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation bought several of the blocks sold by western companies due to political and investor pressure. Petronas of Malaysia and Gulf Petroleum Corporation of Qatar are also involved. Western companies hungry for new places to seek and produce oil are not far behind," Hoyos wrote.

Pipeline Partners

"Unable to raise sufficient investment elsewhere, and unable to fulfill its initial exploration and production agreement alone, in 1996 Canada's Arakis [Energy Corporation] began negotiating with the Sudan government over the introduction of China and Malaysia into its oil venture, including the $1.2bn pipeline plan.

"An interim agreement in December 1996, finalised by mid-1997, gave the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) 40%, Malaysia's state-owned Petronas 30%, Arakis 25% and the Sudan National Petroleum Company 5% in a joint operating company - the Greater Nile Oil Project.

"'Sources close to the deal say Khartoum imposed Petronas and the CNPC on Arakis by threatening not to renew its concession. China is a key arms supplier to Khartoum, whose links to Malaysia, especially to its Islamist networks, are growing. Rivals in Asia, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur are co-operating to fight the Western, mainly United States', oil monopoly.' (Africa Confidential 17 January 1997)." --Sudan Update.

Quotes

"Christ was sold for 30 pieces of silver and our people are being sacrificed in exchange for barrels of oil." --Catholic Bishops Conference, September 2000. [2]

Major Oil Companies

List

  • Agip (Italy)
  • China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC)
  • Elf-Aquitaine (France)
  • Gulf Petroleum Corp. (GPC)
  • Lundin Oil/IPC (Sweden)
  • Mobil
  • National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC)
  • OMV-AG (Austria)
  • Petronas (Malaysia)
  • Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands)
  • Talisman Energy Inc. (Canada)
  • TotalFina (France & Belgium)
  • Source: Sudan Update.

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