Sudan seeks to develop offshore oil with Brazil’s investment

July 19, 2006 (CARACAS) — Sudan is seeking investment from Brazil’s state-run oil company to develop its offshore oil deposits in the Red Sea, the Sudanese ambassador to the South American country said Wednesday.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, is expected to send a team to Sudan next month to consider investment options, Ambassador Rahamtalla M. Osman said on the sidelines of a meeting of South American and Arab countries in the Venezuelan capital.

Osman, who is overseeing the talks with Petrobras, said five offshore and inland concessions were available.

Petrobras has developed extensive technology for drilling in deep and ultra-deep waters _ the source of 70 percent of Brazilian oil, according to the company.

In the Campos Basin in the Atlantic Ocean, Petrobras has successfully drilled wells at depths of some 1,000 meters (3,400 feet).

Osman also said Sudan had been invited to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Sudan is currently an OPEC observer.

“It is under discussion,” he said. “Technical people are to decide (the merits of joining).”

One of Africa’s up-and-coming oil producers, Sudan produced an average of 363,000 barrels a day last year, which the government hopes to boost to 600,000 by the end of 2006.

The country’s proven reserves have more than doubled in five years to 563 million barrels, according to the Oil and Gas Journal.

(ST/AP)