Investment in Sudan pays off
The mainland has begun to get a return on one of its biggest foreign oil investments, worth US$700 million in Sudan, with the first export of crude oil to a Singapore refinery last week from a field it operates there.
In November 1996, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) won the tender for the 49,000 square kilometre site in Sudan, which it operates in a consortium with three other companies.
It is part of CNPC's expansion into exploration abroad since 1992, when it became clear that Beijing would turn from a net oil exporter into a net importer, because domestic production could not keep up with demand.
It has invested in 11 oil fields in seven countries, obtaining 1.98 million tonnes for itself last year and substantially more this year, the China Economic Times reported.
In Sudan, CNPC holds 40 per cent of the project, with 30 per cent held by the Malaysian national oil company, 25 per cent by the Talisman Energy Co of Canada and 5 per cent by the Sudan national oil company.
With an investment of US$700 million, CNPC has raised annual production at the field to nearly 10 million tonnes and built a pipeline of 1,506 kilometres, the longest in Africa, with 60 per cent of the work carried out by mainland companies.
The oil delivered to the Singapore refinery is similar in quality to that produced at Daqing in northeast mainland, the country's biggest field, low in sulphur and high in wax.
PETROLEUM
