Kuwaiti Firm Eyes Sudan Oil Exploration

- Kuwaiti Firm Eyes Sudan Oil Exploration

Thursday, August 04, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

A company based in the Arab Gulf state of Kuwait has expressed interest in conducting oil-wells drilling and exploration activities in Sudan, state media reported on Tuesday.

Sudan's daily oil output currently stands at 110,000 barrels, according to official figures, after the country lost nearly 75 percent of the previous 500,000 barrels per day figure it was splitting evenly since 2005 with South Sudan which seceded on 9 July.

Officials say they expect the current oil figure to rise to 170,000 barrel per day by 2012.

Exploration and production scene of Sudan's oil sector is dominated by Asian and Arab companies, with Chinese-led companies as the main operators.

A delegation of Gulf Petroleum Investment Company (GPI), a Kuwaiti shareholding company, arrived in the country and held a meeting on Tuesday with the country's acting minister of oil Ali Ahmad Osman at his office in Khartoum.

The minister instructed the competent departments at his ministry to provide GPI with necessary support and facilitate its venture to join Sudan's market of oil wells drilling and exploration.

Meanwhile, the company's delegation apprised the minister of its activities in oil-exploration fields, including its operations in Egypt, UAE and Syria.

It is not clear where will the Kuwaiti company's exploration activities take place but new explorations are underway in a number of areas.

In October last year, Sudan announced that oil exploration activities would be initiated in three areas in South Darfur State, one of the three states that make up the country's war-battered western region.

In 2006, Sudan awarded a license to a consortium of Arab and Sudanese companies for block 12A which covers part of North Darfur and stretches up to the border with Libya.

Analysts opine that oil exploration activities in Sudan are subject to a number of uncertainties, including political instability and armed conflicts.

Copyright (c) 2011, Sudan Tribune

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Sudan President Agreed to Keep Southerners at Oil Ministry

- Sudan President Agreed to Keep Southerners at Oil Ministry

Thursday, July 07, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

North Sudan president, Omer Al-Bashir, has agreed to retain South Sudanese employees at the country's federal ministry of petroleum for as long as the south's oil is being exported through the north, the country's federal minister of petroleum announced.

North and South Sudan have been evenly splitting proceeds of the country's oil wealth since 2005 when the two sides signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), ending nearly half a century of intermittent civil wars between them.

The South, whose oilfields produce most of the country's daily oil output of 500,000 barrels, is due to declare independence from the north on July 9 in line with the outcome of the CPA-mandated referendum on the region's independence which was held at the start of this year.

The north, however, owns the refinery and pipeline infrastructure necessary to transport the oil to export terminals, leaving the south with almost no other viable option but to maintain oil-cooperation with the north after independence.

Lual Achuek Deng, Sudan's federal minister of petroleum, announced that Al-Bashir had acquiesced to his request of exempting southern employees of the petroleum ministry from dismissal ahead of the south's independence.

Deng, who is a southerner and a member of South Sudan's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), broke the news during a farewell party organized for him by the ministry's staff on Tuesday.

According to the outgoing minister, Al-Bashir had agreed that southern employees in the ministry should keep their positions for as long as the south's oil is being exported through the north and until a new oil-sharing deal is reached.

North and South Sudan have been engaged in talks with sluggish progress to strike a new oil-sharing deal, but the two parties failed to seal a news deal and talks will continue after the declaration of South Sudan.

The new deal will substitute the current 50-50 split with an arrangement whereby the south pays fees for using the service of the north's pipeline and refineries.

Deng, who was appointed to his position in 2010, is currently embroiled in a public dispute with the SPLM's secretary-general Pagan Amum who accused him of selling and giving half of South Sudan's oil revenues for the month of July to North Sudan in violation of the CPA which ends the current 50-50 split when the south secedes on July 9.

The minister defended himself against Amum's accusations, saying the July sale was approved by South Sudan's president Salva Kiir.

Copyright (c) 2011, Sudan Tribune

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Germany Unveils New Africa Policy, Drops Sudan Visit

- Germany Unveils New Africa Policy, Drops Sudan Visit

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

Germany unveiled its new policy towards Africa, which shifts the stress away from selfless development aid and puts more emphasis on the German interest in obtaining minerals and oil.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle set out the details just before he was due to leave Berlin on a visit to Sudan. His trip was however cancelled because drifting ash from a volcano erupting in Eritrea, made aviation in the area unsafe.

German business is to be encouraged to negotiate deals that combine investment in the 53-nation continent with extraction rights under the new policy.

The European country's approach to Africa would be "internally consistent, set realistic objectives and serve our values and interests," according to the policy paper.

The center-right government's policy is binding on all ministries and agencies dealing with Africa.

Germany was a colonial power in Africa until the end of the First World War in 1918, when it lost control of all the territories that are today known as Namibia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Cameroon and Togo.

Its interest in Africa revived in the post-colonial period, with many Germans eager to use their wealth to end world poverty, but disillusionment soon set in amid reports of waste and corruption.

Under the new policy Berlin adopts a tougher approach to Africa, that requires future development aid spending to achieve "value for money" and better market access for German companies. The 29-page policy document talks of a "partnership between equals" and gives "peace and security in our neighborhood" as Germany's prime objective.

The document also mentions "irregular migration" from Africa as something Berlin wants to prevent.

The paper said Germany will stress its own values in Africa, including good governance and democracy, and hopes the 32 African nations that allow the death penalty will abolish it.

Berlin will also push for more rights for women and an end to laws against homosexuality. However the policy paper does not suggest that aid would be conditional on such countries changing their laws.

"We don't need to infect Africa with the germ of a love of freedom. It exists there already," said Westerwelle.

Referring to the revolts in North Africa, he said, "What we are experiencing in Africa is perhaps the most fascinating proof that the world is changing."

Africa was not being given a big enough place in world diplomacy, according to Westerwelle, noting that no African nation had a permanent UN Security Council seat.

"Africa is seriously under-represented in the global balance," he said.

Several aid groups in Berlin criticized the proposals to put aid under tough scrutiny and require it to yield economic benefits.

A joint response by several non-government organizations said the policy ignored the reality of the lives of the majority of Africans who live in rural areas, putting business interests ahead of beating poverty.

One aid group, Welthungerhilfe criticized the policy's hostility to import controls that protect African industries.

"Sometimes it serves economic development to protect newly created markets for a certain time," said the group's secretary, Wolfgang Jamann.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet meanwhile passed a resolution to recognize southern Sudan as Africa's 54th independent state when it gains independence from Khartoum on July 9. Westerwelle had been set to visit both parts during his scheduled three-day trip.

Germany will be chairing the UN Security Council when the new state is admitted to the UN next month.

Copyright 2011 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

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Envoy: S. Sudan to Respect India's Oil Deals After Independence

Envoy: S. Sudan to Respect India's Oil Deals After Independence

Thursday, May 05, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
by Julius N. Uma, Sudan Tribune

All contracts for Indian stakes in south Sudan's oil wells and their entities within the semi-autonomous region will be honored after the latter's independence, a special envoy revealed last week.

Priscilla Joseph Kuch, according Indo-Asia News Service (IANS), made these assurances during a meeting she held with S.M Krishna, the Indian external affairs minister in the capital, Delhi.

South Sudan is due to become independent in July after its population overwhelmingly voted for separation during the January self-determination referendum. The plebiscite was a key part of Sudan's 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended over two decades of war between north and south of the country.

Also discussed, according to Vishnu Prakash, the ministry spokesperson, was India's hydrocarbon interests in the oil-rich South Sudan which, he added, was reportedly "consolidating" and taking stock of agreements in the sector. "Our understanding is that the agreements pertaining to India will be honored," Prakash reportedly told reporters.

Currently, according to IANS, India's ONGC Videsh Limited is said to have stakes in several wells in Sudan, with production reportedly standing at 160,000 barrels per day. Out of this, 100,000 barrels per day of production is reportedly from oil wells in South Sudan.

"OVL has already offered training and to go beyond the current level of engagement," Rajiv Shahare, the Indian external affairs ministry secretary reportedly revealed.

OVL is a company began operating in Sudan in 2003. It built the pipeline from Khartoum to Port Sudan. It has a 25% stake in Sudan's Greater Nile Oil Project, which produces 280,000 barrels of oil per day. It is looking to expand its reach in South Sudan.

Regarded as being among the biggest players in Sudan's oil sector, along with China and Malaysia, India reportedly made an initial investment of US$1 billion in the sector, which is said to have increased to US$2.5 billion.

Over the years India has reportedly extended a US$566 million line of credit, which includes building a 500 megawatt power plant. Bilateral trade between India and Sudan was about $1 billion in 2010.

In March this year, the Energy and Mining ministry in the Government of South Sudan and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), a Malaysian-owned oil and gas company signed a two-year memorandum of understanding aimed at boosting mutual cooperation between the two parties.

The document, signed in South Sudan's capital, Juba, outlines the overall principles of cooperation in the oil and gas sector between the government and the Malaysian oil giants, creating an avenue exploiting existing business opportunities in the two regions.

Founded on August 14, 1974, PETRONAS is owned by the Malaysian government. Since its incorporation, the company has reportedly grown to be an integrated international oil and gas company with business interests in 35 countries.

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