Sudan to drill 253 wells in 2015 to boost ailing economy

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Sudan’s Minister for Oil Makawi Mohamed Awad has said his ministry plans to drill 253 wells next year as the country boosts its oil and gas reserves and seeks to attract foreign investments.

Makawi who was speaking before Parliament on Tuesday said the wells would increase the country’s oil reserves by 65.4 million barrels and those of gas by 300 billion cubic feet.

The wells are to be drilled in Blocks 4,6 and 17 where Makawi says have been identified to have untapped gas reserves while an experimental project is also set for Block 8.

According to Sudanese News Agency SUNA the fuel will be provided from two oil refineries Khartoum an Obied to produce oil products amounting to 3.9 metric tonnes.

The increase in production is aimed at increasing oil for domestic production and reducing imports from its former acreage now in South Sudan.

Sudan in the same period also plans to update the industry’s legislation, develop oil areas, increase its storage capacity as well as upgrade its monitoring, inspection and auditing methods.

A report from the ministry of minerals shows that in the last 9 months to September 2014 Sudan’s daily oil production reached 116.9 barrels per day 16.5 percent below its set target while its oil reserves increased by 15.8 million barrels.

In 2013 Khartoum was forced to slash oil subsidies relied by the public nearly doubling the price of fuel as the country sought to reinvest the $1.7 billion the program was costing the country annually.

Sudan has also suffered as fees from usage of its pipelines by South Sudan dropped as the country was rocked by a civil war that has seen it drop its production to about 160,000bpd.
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