Sudan to launch international tender for 10 oil, gas fields

Sudan is due to launch an international tender for investment in ten oil and gas fields next month.

The move is the second phase of a tender offered by Khartoum last year, including 15 squares available for oil and gas investment. Khartoum announced several measures aimed at raising the country’s oil production to 31 million barrels in 2018, with a financial return of up to $1 billion.

Large companies acquired contracts for exploration, extraction and marketing, including Malaysia’s Petronas Petroleum Company which received contracts to enter the Red Sea squares for exploration and oil production. British firm Mercantile General International also won a contract to promote investment opportunities in Sudan for British oil companies and transfer British technology to the country’s oil industry.

Sudan announced in February that its oil reserves had risen to 165 million barrels after testing the first well in the Rawat field, located between Sudan and South Sudan. Current exploration in the field increases Sudan’s production capacity to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The director of information in the Sudanese Ministry of Oil, Gas and Minerals said that the fields currently offered for investment are oil-rich squares in newly discovered areas, as well as other squares that already were put out for tender last year, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.

The director added that some of these fields are open for international tender for the first time after the discovery of new reserves – such as 30 and 40 square metres in the west of the country – and explained that the details of the tender will be announced soon.

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The Sudanese Oil Minister said in a press interview that his country will next January launch the 30 and 40 squares located in the oil fields in Heglig, in the west of the country. The Minister also welcomed US companies wishing to invest in Sudanese oil and called for investment in the mineral and gold sectors, of which the country has a reserve of 500 thousand tonnes.

The Sudanese Oil Ministry has been receiving bids from international oil companies to invest in 15 oil fields throughout 2018, after Sudan launched an international tender in March last year. One of the most prominent projects for investment is the Industrial Gas City – which is based on US Rock Oil technology – with “Square 8” located in Sennar province in the southeast of the country.

Other opportunities for oil investment in Sudan include increasing the storage capacity of the Khartoum refinery, which currently operates at 90,000 bpd and covers 80 per cent of the country’s oil consumption. The projects also include the extension of pipelines from the country’s production and storage areas to the outskirts of Sudan.

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