India’s OVL Looking To Expand In Sudan
Sudan’s Oil Minister ΄Awad al-Jaz said on 6 November that India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh (OVL), which already has interests in three oil concessions in the country, was looking to acquire two more blocks, saying “doors are open for Indian investment in Sudan,” according to the semi-official Sudanese Media Centre. Dr Jaz was quoted shortly after a meeting with India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora, at the beginning of a two-day India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference in New Delhi. OVL’s Managing Director RS Butola indicated that the licenses in question were Block 8 in the Blue Nile Basin, operated by Malaysia’s Petronas, and Block B in the Jonglei Basin, operated by Total. The partners in Block B, which include the state-owned firms from north and south Sudan Sudapet and Nilepet, and Kuwait’s Kufpec, are looking for an oil company to replace Marathon, since Washington’s decision to renew economic sanctions against Khartoum in May forced the US firm to sell its 32.5% stake (MEES, 23 July).
OVL has established a significant presence in Sudan since it bought Canadian firm Talisman’s 25% interest in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), Sudan’s biggest oil producing consortium led by China’s CNPC, in 2002 (MEES, 4 November 2002). GNPOC owns Blocks 1, 2 and 4 in the Muglad basin. The company’s vice president Yusuf Muhammad Ahmad said earlier this month that GNPOC was struggling to maintain the production rate of 250,000 b/d. The fields are the oldest in Sudan and have seen output fall from 288,000 b/d in 2004, due to natural reservoir depletion. OVL also has a 24% interest in Block 5A which produces around 40,000 b/d, and a 23.5% stake in Block 5B.
Copyright MEES 2007.
