Sudan, India’s ONGC in talks on products pipeline

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 (Reuters) – India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp is in talks with the Sudan government to build a pipeline that will carry exports of oil products like gasoline, Sudan’s oil minister Awad Ahmed al-Jaz said on Thursday.

“It is an Indian company negotiating on the pipeline. If we conclude discussions with the Indian company, they are going to do it,” Jaz told Reuters on the sidelines of a business forum held in conjunction with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Malaysia.

He said an agreement is expected to be signed in the next few weeks, after which construction will begin immediately.

The pipeline, expected to cost up to $200 million, will be from the capital Khartoum to al-Khair seaport.

Jaz said last month he was looking at proposals from three or four new companies to build the pipeline.

Earlier this year, state-run exploration and production firm ONGC bought a 25 percent stake in Sudan’s Greater Nile project from Canada’s Talisman Energy Inc .

Recently it acquired equity in two more Sudanese properties, blocks 5A and 5B, from Austrian oil and gas group OMV .