Sudan aims for July deal with Petronas on refinery

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 (Reuters) – Sudan hopes to seal a deal with Malaysia’s Petronas next month on building a new 100,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery, allowing it to use rising domestic production, its oil minister said on Tuesday.

Khartoum Refinery produces 75% of Sudan’s energy requirements, and has plans for further growth.

“We haven’t finalised anything yet but hopefully we will by July,” Awad Ahmed al-Jaz told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Asia Oil and Gas Conference.

Sudan had considered dealing with India’s giant Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the refinery at the start of this year, but later turned to Petronas. Both companies are already active in the country’s upstream.

The refinery, in Port Sudan, will be set up to run the country’s new Dar Blend crude, which Jaz said was set to reach near its 200,000 bpd peak output by the end of September.

Sudan’s overall crude production is now at 320,000 bpd but will hit 500,000 bpd by the end of the third quarter and 600,000 bpd by early next year, he said.

Last year, Jaz said a Chinese company was helping expand the capacity of its Khartoum refinery to 100,000 bpd, up from 70,000 bpd. It has one small 20,000 bpd refinery in Port Sudan.