Sudan, Russia Mull Creating Oil Trade Hub At Red Sea By Building Big Refinery - Ambassador

Sudan, Russia Mull Creating Oil Trade Hub at Red Sea by Building Big Refinery - Ambassador

Russian state exploration company Rosgeologia is mulling building an oil refinery in Port Sudan, turning it into a major hub connecting consumers in landlocked African countries with oil producers, including the Gulf states, Sudanese Ambassador to Russia Nadir Babiker told Sputnik

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2018) Russian state exploration company Rosgeologia is mulling building an oil refinery in Port Sudan, turning it into a major hub connecting consumers in landlocked African countries with oil producers, including the Gulf states, Sudanese Ambassador to Russia Nadir Babiker told Sputnik.

The idea to jointly construct an oil refinery was discussed back in July during Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin's visit to Sudan. At that time, Rosgeologia agreed to assist Sudan in developing geological maps and equipping local labs.

"Rosgeologia is considering building a big refinery. This refinery should supply diesel and other products from Port Sudan not only to Sudan but also to neighboring land-locked countries, like Chad, car, South Sudan, Ethiopia. They use Port Sudan as the access to the sea. The idea is to build this refinery to become regional to supply even Djibouti, which is also a consumer of oil," Babiker said.

He added that the refinery would also be able to buy crude oil from Gulf countries, dealing with both processing and selling it.

Meanwhile, Sudan is looking to increase its oil production, which suffered a serious decline after the separation of South Sudan, which retained a large part of the oil fields, the ambassador added.

"We are now working on new fields. Right now there is a new filed which has been discovered recently in White Nile region which at the early stage has the production of 70,000 barrels per day and is expected to increase. Now we are doing exploration; there are about ten new fields being tendered. In this area also there is a potential," he clarified.

The diplomat stressed that it is the "right time for Russians" to enter Sudan's exploration market, as the country seeks to satisfy both internal oil demand and resume exports to the rest of the world.