CAPITAL: KHARTOUM

MONETARY UNIT: POUND

REFINING CAPACITY: 81,700 B/CD

PRODUCTION: 12,000 B/D

OIL/CONDENSATE RESERVES:

262 MILLION BBL

NATURAL GAS RESERVES: 3 TCF

Sudan became an oil exporting country on Aug. 30, 1999, when a tanker departed Port Sudan for Singapore with 600,000 bbl of crude produced 950 miles inland in the Muglad basin.

The country had said earlier it hoped to join OPEC in the future.

The 10,000 b/d Concorp refinery at Khartoum started up in June. It is owned by Sudanese businessman Mohamed Abdallah Jar al-Nabi, who bought Chevron?s rights in 1992. Product slate is gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, and fuel oil.

Sudan?s primary producer, Talisman Energy of Calgary, faced criticism over its participation in the strife-torn country. It held extensive talks with the Sudanese and Canadian governments, promising cooperation to both.

Production averaged 23,767 b/d net to Talisman?s 25% interest during 1999 despite a short interruption due to an attack on the 28 in. pipeline. Three pump stations were in service. Gross production reached 155,000 b/d in early November.

Talisman drilled 28 exploration and appraisal wells in the first 10 months of 1999, with a 90% success rate that included nine of 13 wildcats.

With start-up of the pipeline, Talisman said it would continue exploratory and development drilling on its five Muglad basin blocks, which cover 12.2 million acres.

Five fields-Heglig, Unity, El Toor, El Nar, and Toma South, were under development. Discoveries had been made at Khairat, Garaad, and Khor Bhow, proving the existence of new trends east and west of the Heglig-Unity trend, and a late 1998 well indicated that El Toor field reserves could be much greater than the 1998 estimate of 34 million bbl proved and proba-ble.

More than 100 untested prospects, leads, and anomalies had been identified, many low risk and on trend with existing discoveries. Prospects tended to be in the range of 10-50 million bbl of potential reserves.

Drilling depths are 6,500-8,000 ft. Wells were expected to average 1,000-3,000 b/d on pump. Crudes are 25-40! gravity and paraffinic with pour points of 50-86! F. Sudanese blend crude from Heglig, Unity, and other fields was expected to average 34! gravity with a low sulfur content.

Another group was exploring in southern Sudan. Led by the IPC Sudan Ltd. subsidiary of Lundin Oil AB, Stockholm, it reported that its Thar Jath well was an apparent significant discovery.

The well was projected to 3,200 m to evaluate Cretaceous Bentiu and Darfur sandstones that proved successful on the adjacent block being developed by Talisman?s Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. Thar Jath is on trend and about 75 km southeast of Unity oil field.

However, IPC Sudan drilled Thar Jath only to 1,820 m. Petrophysical analysis of the primary Bentiu and Aradieba sandstone reservoirs indicated Oa substantial net pay interval that is further supported by excellent oil and gas shows and an oil gradient from repeat formation test pressure samples,O Lundin said. Thar Jath is one of the largest structural features identified in the basin.