THE China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) plans to invest one billion dollars jointly with Sudan to create the African country’s largest oil refinery, the Chinese state press reported recently. The deal, expected to be signed within the coming months, will use $300 million to expand the Khartoum Refinery from 50,000brl/d to 90,000brl/d, with the rest of the investment being made available for construction of a 750-km long pipeline linking block six in southern Sudan’s Kordofan oilfield with the refinery and Port Sudan.
CNPC holds a 40% share in the Greater Nile Consortium, which produces 330,000brl/d from three oil blocks, and a 42% share in two blocks in Malut, numbers three and seven, which are yet to come on line. “With the three blocks coming on stream, the total production of the three oilfields that CNPC has interests in is expected to increase to 400,000brl/d of oil in 2004 and 500,000 in 2005,” Sudan’s ambassador to China, Mohamed Salih, is quoted as saying. He added that Chinese oil companies investing in Sudan would enjoy preferential policies as tax incentives.