Sudan to announce results of 3 oil tenders in ’07

Nov 30, 2006 (CAIRO) — Sudan’s Oil Minister Awad Ahmed al-Jaz said Thursday that the results of tenders for three oil blocks are expected to be announced next year.

“We’ve had many small companies that have submitted applications for the blocks,” he told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of an energy conference in the Egyptian capital.

One of the blocks is both onshore and in shallow waters. The other two blocks are onshore, al-Jaz added.

The Sudanese oil industry is currently dominated by investments from Chinese, Indian and Malaysian firms.

Sudan plans to double its crude oil output to 1 million barrels a day over the next two years.

“We’re currently producing about 500,000 barrels (a day), and we’re hoping to reach a total of 1 million barrels a day by around 2008,” al-Jaz said.

Al-Jaz earlier confirmed that his country was close to joining the 11-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that supplies around 40% of the world’s daily oil consumption.

“Yes we have concluded some measures already and we are closer to joining,” he said.

Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria, is also poised to join. The joining of the two new members will significantly boost OPEC’s influence over global oil markets.

On nuclear power, al-Jaz said Sudan had no plans to develop its own program.

“There are no preliminary plans or anything to develop a nuclear program. We have enough issues to deal with,” he said.

Several countries in the Middle East and Africa, including OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, have had discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency about developing nuclear power programs to supplement their overall energy supplies.

(Dow Jones)