{"id":58424,"date":"2025-12-09T23:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=58424"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:36:19","slug":"sudanese-oil-signals-a-farewell-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/sudanese-oil-signals-a-farewell-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudanese Oil Signals a Farewell Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies<\/strong><\/p>\n

A series of consecutive blows have struck Sudan\u2019s oil sector in recent weeks, the latest occurring just two days ago. After decades of growth and production\u2014during which Sudan joined the list of oil-producing nations in the late 1990s\u2014the industry now finds itself facing unprecedented decline.<\/p>\n

Sudan\u2019s oil reserves are estimated at around six billion barrels, of which only 20% has been extracted due to financial and administrative challenges. The country had long relied on oil revenues as a key source of foreign currency, especially those generated from facilities used to transport and export South Sudan\u2019s crude through Sudanese territory in exchange for sovereign service fees.<\/p>\n

However, recent developments\u2014including the Rapid Support Forces\u2019 (RSF) seizure of the Heglig oilfield in West Kordofan, which hosts the main pumping station for South Sudan\u2019s oil, and China\u2019s notification of its intent to terminate its contract for Block 6 in the Balila area\u2014have collectively pushed Sudan out of the ranks of oil-producing nations.<\/p>\n

Contract Termination<\/strong><\/p>\n

On December 7, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), through its subsidiary PetroEnergy, informed Sudan\u2019s Ministry of Energy and Mining that it urgently needed to hold a meeting in Juba in December 2025 to discuss the early termination of its oil operations in Sudan.<\/p>\n

The company justified its decision by citing the continuous deterioration of security around the field, repeated acts of sabotage and theft, and the collapse of supply chains due to the conflict, which rendered essential spare parts and equipment unavailable.<\/p>\n

CNPC revealed that it had made significant efforts to resume production after the attack on Balila Airport in October 2023, including establishing a new security mechanism, securing alternative supply routes, and redeploying employees to the eastern field. Yet these efforts failed, and production in Block 6 could not resume amid ongoing armed conflict.<\/p>\n

The company stated that with expenses but no revenue, the situation had become financially unsustainable and incompatible with CNPC\u2019s overseas investment policies. It expressed hope that the meeting with Sudanese officials would take place no later than December 31, 2025. The company regretted that early termination of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) had become unavoidable under force majeure conditions.<\/p>\n

Staff Withdrawal and Production Halt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just two days after CNPC\u2019s letter, Sudanese public opinion was shaken by news of the RSF\u2019s takeover of the Heglig oilfield\u2014the country\u2019s largest producing field.<\/p>\n

An employee at Heglig, who requested anonymity, told Al-Muhaqiq that production at the field had completely stopped. He said companies working there had withdrawn their staff to South Sudan two days before the anticipated attack. He explained that shutting down Heglig effectively halts oil production across all Sudanese states, removing the country entirely from the list of oil-producing nations.<\/p>\n

Heglig, located in West Kordofan on the border with South Sudan, contains the pipelines and pumping station used to export South Sudan\u2019s crude through Port Bashayer in eastern Sudan.<\/p>\n

Mounting Debts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Commenting on the Chinese company\u2019s decision, former Sudanese Minister of Petroleum, Engineer Ishaq Bashir Jamaa, noted that CNPC\u2014the Chinese state-owned investor in Block 6\u2014had proposed terminating the contract before. In 2019, China raised the issue due to Sudan\u2019s accumulating debts.<\/p>\n

Jamaa told Al-Muhaqiq that China had submitted letters on the matter during the government of Dr. Mohamed Tahir Ela in March 2019, but the decision was postponed at the time on the grounds that the new government needed more time to examine the proposal.<\/p>\n

New Understandings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jamaa added that another possibility is the existence of U.S.\u2013Chinese understandings regarding China\u2019s investments in Sudan\u2019s oil sector, particularly since the original discoveries were made by the American company Chevron before China took over extraction operations. He suggested that a settlement may have been reached outside Sudan\u2019s involvement, noting that the proposed meeting would be held in Juba\u2014a country aligned with the RSF and hosting RSF fighters among its ranks.<\/p>\n

He further explained that after South Sudan\u2019s secession, Sudan\u2019s crude production dropped to around 120,000 barrels per day\u2014enough to feed the Khartoum and El-Obeid refineries and maintain pipeline flow. The government used to purchase CNPC\u2019s share of daily output but has been unable to settle its dues to this day.<\/p>\n

Jamaa confirmed that companies had shown no willingness to fund operational costs, leading to a decline in production to just 30,000 barrels per day before the war, until production eventually ceased entirely due to repeated attacks during the past years of conflict.<\/p>\n

An Early Exit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oil journalist Abdelwahab Jumaa said CNPC had effectively begun its exit from Sudan in 2019 after withdrawing from its most important concessions in Blocks 1, 2, and 4, along with the departure of Indian and Malaysian partners after their concession contracts expired.<\/p>\n

Jumaa told Al-Muhaqiq that Block 6 in Balila was the company\u2019s only remaining concession, and that its expiration date was approaching. \u201cThe concession in Balila was expected to be renewed, but since most fields had already reverted to the Sudanese government, the company was left with only Block 6,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He downplayed the significance of CNPC\u2019s remaining presence, noting that most of its investments had shifted to South Sudan following secession. He added that the company\u2019s assets in Sudan had suffered major security disruptions during the war between the Sudanese army and the RSF, especially after the attack on Balila.<\/p>\n

Jumaa said that the upcoming meeting is not solely about contract termination but also about reviewing the agreement, noting that the company maintains a share in the pipeline that transports South Sudan\u2019s oil from Fula to Jebelain and on to Port Bashayer.<\/p>\n

Source: Almohagig<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies A series of consecutive blows have struck Sudan\u2019s oil sector in recent weeks, the latest occurring just two days ago. After decades of growth and production\u2014during which Sudan joined the list of oil-producing nations in the late 1990s\u2014the industry now finds itself facing unprecedented decline. Sudan\u2019s oil reserves are estimated at …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58426,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58424\/revisions\/58426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}