KHARTOUM: Sudan plans to increase oil production to at least 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year thanks to two new oilfields and a higher recovery rate from existing fields, its oil minister told a newspaper yesterday.
The African country, which currently pumps 136,000 bpd to 140,000 bpd, lost three-quarters of its output when South Sudan became independent in July 2011. The drop in oil, its main source of budget and trade revenues, has thrown its economy into turmoil.
Sudan had originally planned to reach 180,000 bpd by the end of the year, but its major Heglig oilfield was damaged during a brief occupation by South Sudan’s army and border fighting between the two countries in April.
The planned increase will be driven partly by the Al Barsaya oilfield in Block 17 in South Kordofan state, which has started with an initial output of 6,000 bpd, Oil Minister Faisal Hamad told the Al Intibaha newspaper. Its output will rise to between 10,000 bpd and 15,000 bpd this year, he estimated. He did not name the companies involved in the field, but Block 17 is operated by state oil firm Sudapet and Ansan, a company owned by Yemeni investors.
A second new oilfield in Hadida in Block 6 in the western Darfur region will increase output to 20,000 bpd this year from 10,000 bpd currently, he said.
“We’ve achieved no doubt big progress thanks to applying modern technologies, which have boosted the recovery rate,” Hamad said.
Sudan last year signed an agreement with Norway to help improve the recovery rate of existing wells to 47 percent from 23 percent. Its current output serves only domestic consumption. Sudan also plans to increase capacity at its three refineries — located north of Khartoum, in Port Sudan and El-Obeid — to 300,000 bpd from 140,000 bpd now, he said.
Technical studies have been completed on a proposed doubling of capacity at the Khartoum refinery, a joint-venture with Chinese state oil firm China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), to 200,000 bpd, he said, without giving details. Reuters
