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 SUDAN
East Africa
Despite civil war the Sudanese government is actively
pursuing E & P even though most major oil companies have stayed away
fearing investor protests.
A series of discoveries were made in south central Sudan
in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the rifted Melut and Muglad basins
but it was 20 years before Sudan
became a significant oil producer in 1999. The major operator is now the
Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) made up of CNPC,
Petronas and Sudapet, which produces from ten fields delivering oil by a
1600km 28 inch pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
 Exploration is also beginning in the Blue Nile and Red
Sea regions but these areas are unlikely to witness the successes of the
south although a small gas condensate discovery was made in the Red Sea
in 1975.
Considering the difficulties of operating in the country some of
the announced plans by the operating companies and the Sudanese
government appear ambitious. Nevertheless, new development programmes and the
bringing onstream of new discoveries, which are being made
in the Melut basin in new blocks, is leading to production to grow rapidly.
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