Sudan exporting 425,000 bpd of crude – official

July 28, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan is exporting around 425,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and 30,000 tonnes a month of petroleum products, a senior oil ministry official said on Saturday.

The official also said deepened U.S. sanctions earlier this year had not hurt Sudanese exports, except in administrative banking procedures.

“We produce a minimum of about 300,000 bpd of Nile Blend and the local refinery uses about 75,000 of that for internal consumption,” the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

“Of Dar Blend we produce about 200,000 bpd, all of it for exports,” he added.

Sweet Nile Blend is easier to sell and refine than the acidic Dar Blend.

Rights activists have pressured Indian, Malaysian and Chinese companies, the major investors in Sudanese oil.

The activists say revenues from Sudan’s oil industry fund military operations in Sudan’s western Darfur region where international experts estimate 200,000 were killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in four years of revolt.

The oil ministry official said around 40,000 bpd of al-Fula crude is also produced from Block 6 operated 95 percent by China’s CNPC. That goes entirely to the local refinery for domestic consumption.

The official added some 30,000 tonnes a month of petroleum products were exported.

“If production increases we have the capacity to export more,” he said. Two marine export terminals on Sudan’s east coast can store up to 4 million barrels of Nile Blend and 3 millon of Dar Blend.

Sudan has four oil refineries, with a total capacity of 142,000 bpd. A small one in Abu Jabra in western Sudan refines 2,000 bpd with another in nearby el-Obeid refining up to 15,000 bpd.

Sudan’s main refinery in Khartoum can refine 100,000 bpd and a small Port Sudan refinery 25,000 bpd, according to documents obtained from the energy ministry.

Malaysian state oil firm Petronas would finish a 150,000 bpd capacity new Port Sudan refinery with special capabilities to refine the acidic Dar Blend by 2010, the official said.

Petronas said last month it had not yet decided whether to continue with the investment.

Rebels last year attacked the Abu Jabra installation, situated in the Kordofan region bordering Darfur.

U.S. sanctions in May imposed embargoes on 31 Sudanese companies, many involved in the oil industry, as well as three individuals accused of blocking the Darfur peace process.

The oil ministry official said the sanctions had only affected the banking procedures, and the government was talking to Lebanese banks about the possibility of taking over the financial dealings resulting from its oil revenues.

“We are working on how to move away from using U.S. dollars,” he added.

(Reuters)