27 December 2012, Sweetcrude, Khartoum – Sudan will boost its oil production by 10,000 barrels a day when the new Hadida field comes on stream this week in the west of the African country, state news agency SUNA said on Wednesday.
Sudan, which lost three quarters of its oil output when South Sudan seceded from it in July 2011, is producing 120,000 bpd and plans to reach 150,000 bpd by year-end, its oil minister said in October, Reuters reported.
Analysts are skeptical about Sudan’s ambitious production expansion plans as the efforts have been hampered by a scarcity of the dollars needed to bring in better equipment and technology.
Sudan had initially planned to pump 180,000 bpd by year-end but missed the target after weeks of border fighting with arch rival South Sudan in April, which damaged the key Heglig oilfield and its central processing plant on the Sudan side of the disputed joint border.
SUNA said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir would inaugurate on Thursday the new Hadida field operated by Petro Energy E&P.
The Chinese-owned company has the oil and gas exploration concession for Block 6 in the west of the vast country.
Oil Minister Awad Ahmed al-Jaz told SUNA the Hadida field would produce in the future 60,000 bpd, without being more specific.
A 150 km pipeline had been built to link it to the supply network in Balila in South Kordofan state, SUNA added.
In July, Sudan signed oil exploration and production-sharing deals with Canadian company Statesman Resources as well as with Chinese, Nigerian, Australian, Brazilian and French companies.