Sudan’s oil output to hit 600,000 bpd in 2007 – president

2 April 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s oil output is expected to reach 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, its president said on Monday.

Omar Hassan al-Bashir told parliament the rise would come through new fields coming on stream. He did not elaborate.

Sudan’s finance minister had said average oil production for 2007 will run at 520,000 barrels per day (bpd) as new fields that were delayed last year are now fully on stream.

Actual average oil production for 2006 was only 365,000 bpd, well below the 500,000 bpd estimated at the beginning of the year.

The 2007 budget is assuming that higher quality Nile Blend crude will be priced at $50 a barrel, whereas the 190,000 – 200,000 bpd of new blend is assumed to earn $30 a barrel, he said.

Sudan, which has said it is considering joining oil cartel OPEC, has attracted Chinese, Indian and Malaysian investment in its budding oil industry as U.S. sanctions and civil wars have deterred Western companies.

Oil was one of the main reasons for a bitter north-south civil war in Africa’s largest country which ended in January 2005 with a peace deal forming an autonomous south Sudan administration and a new coalition government in Khartoum.

Under the deal the southern government is due around 50 percent of revenue from oil in the south, where Sudan’s largest fields lie.

(Reuters)