{"id":62059,"date":"2026-10-06T16:20:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=62059"},"modified":"2026-10-06T16:20:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:20:04","slug":"the-return-of-the-national-oil-corporation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/06\/the-return-of-the-national-oil-corporation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of the National Oil Corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adel El-Baz<\/strong><\/span>
\n1<\/strong>
\nThe most welcome news I have heard in recent days is the return of the National Oil Corporation, following the Ministry of Justice\u2019s approval of its law. This is a sound decision because it strikes at the sector’s centres of corruption and ends the era of chaos.<\/strong>
\n2<\/strong>
\nThe Ministry of Energy and Oil \u2014 despite having neither energy nor oil \u2014 has proved to be little more than a vast stage for the practice of chaos, as well as an ideal breeding ground for corruption. Every effort to reform its administration or its dysfunctional policies has failed.<\/strong>
\nOur voices have grown hoarse calling on the Minister, both through direct communication and through dozens of articles, urging the Ministry to undertake genuine reform of the energy sector by closing down centres of corruption, dismantling the long queues of middlemen, and confronting the oil mafia.<\/strong>
\nBut the Minister appears unwilling to hear anything other than the echo of his own voice, until we have now reached rock bottom.<\/strong>
\n3<\/strong>
\nWe did not ask the Minister to reinvent the wheel. Neighbouring African countries have a wealth of experience in the oil sector, and these experiences have ultimately led to the stabilisation of oil importation and distribution systems at the lowest possible cost and with the least effort, while also contributing to long-term exchange-rate stability.<\/strong>
\nLet us consider two regional experiences: Kenya and Uganda. Both models have demonstrated that the solution lies in taking oil imports out of the hands of private companies and speculators and placing them under mechanisms controlled by the state.<\/strong>
\nFor Sudan, particularly in the area of imports, this is even more important. A country facing armed external aggression and an economic war in which every available instrument is being deployed \u2014 including oil, banks and counterfeit currencies \u2014 has a vital interest in controlling its most strategically important commodity.<\/strong>
\nThe entire world intervenes to protect its economy from the growing impact of political, economic and geographical volatility. Even the United States has begun releasing millions of barrels from its oil reserves to control diesel prices and, consequently, interest rates, inflation, and other economic indicators.<\/strong>
\n4<\/strong>
\nNo country would place its most strategically important commodity \u2014 one that affects the war effort, agriculture, electricity and all other vital sectors \u2014 in the hands of middlemen and various mafias unless it were in a state of paralysis, as our country appears to be.<\/strong>
\nAll the countries around us have resorted to long-term contracts with major countries and global companies and have secured a range of concessions and preferential arrangements.<\/strong>
\nThese opportunities were available to us as far back as 2022, when Saudi Aramco approached the Ministry of Petroleum at the time with a request to resume its operations in Sudan on a commercial basis.<\/strong>
\nBut the oil mafia, which has profited from corruption from then until now, refused even to respond to Aramco\u2019s offer.<\/strong>
\n5<\/strong>
\nOn 28 April 2026, the American energy website Energy published a report stating:<\/strong>
\n\u201cSudan is considering an offer from Saudi Aramco to supply fuel, in a move that could enhance supply stability and support the energy sector, which has faced financing and operational challenges in recent times.\u201d<\/strong>
\nThe platform added that the Saudi oil giant’s offer was still under consideration by the relevant authorities as part of preliminary understandings on the supply of petroleum products.<\/strong>
\nJust imagine: the country is being overwhelmed by crises, and the Ministry is still considering an offer from Aramco!<\/strong>
\nAn offer that would guarantee stable supplies, away from domestic market fluctuations and the machinations of the oil mafia. An offer that would represent a smooth transition from the costly \u201cdeal-based economy\u201d, controlled by networks of vested interests and corruption, to an \u201ceconomy of stable supply\u201d \u2014 thereby stabilising a vital component of the macroeconomy.<\/strong>
\n6<\/strong>
\nWhat is required is not merely the replacement of one group of middlemen with another, but a disciplined centralised import model: long-term contracts with more than one qualified global supplier; a transparent pricing mechanism linked to international benchmarks; deferred financing backed by clear guarantees; while retaining the role of local companies in distribution, storage and related services under transparent competition.<\/strong>
\nSuch a system would give the state greater negotiating power and a stronger capacity to secure its needs.<\/strong>
\nFailure to conclude the deal simply gives the middlemen more time to exercise their influence and undermine economic stability. It is part of a war of attrition against the economy waged by the Janjaweed of the oil sector, who, the author alleges, siphon millions of dollars from the blood of the Sudanese people with every tanker, while the Ministry knows what is happening and watches \u2014 and even assists.<\/strong>
\nThe Ministry refuses to move quickly towards an agreement with Aramco, while granting dozens of permits to companies to import tankers that then line up for long periods. The Central Bank of Sudan consequently pays for the tankers in hard currency, in addition to paying demurrage charges for each vessel, amounting to US$50,000 per day.<\/strong>
\nLast week, one importer told me that the Central Bank of Sudan had paid the demurrage charges on one of his vessels, which had been delayed for five months. In other words, the bank had paid US$7.5 million \u2014 yes, seven million five hundred thousand dollars \u2014 in demurrage, on top of the cost of the tanker itself.<\/strong>
\nAnd the citizen ultimately bears the entire cost.<\/strong>
\nThis practice continues with dozens of companies, all generating losses as a result of what I regard as the disastrous policies and failures of the Ministry of Energy and Oil.<\/strong>
\nAll of this could have been avoided if the Ministry of Energy had secured a long-term agreement with Aramco, or with major companies such as Trafigura or Vitol, among others. But it failed to do so because it fell under the influence of the mafia and fuel middlemen.<\/strong>
\nNor is announcing the return of the National Oil Corporation sufficient unless it is built on strict governance principles: a professional and independent board of directors; regular publication of import volumes, costs and selling prices; disclosure of tenders, contracts and financing terms; and independent audits of shipping and insurance invoices and demurrage charges.<\/strong>
\nA national corporation should not merely represent a name change or a transfer of powers. It should be an instrument to reclaim economic decision-making and protect public funds.<\/strong>
\nThe return of the National Oil Corporation to operation could bring this chaos to an end. Its return was reportedly one of Aramco\u2019s conditions for doing business with an institution with experience managing an energy portfolio and an excellent reputation in the global energy sector.<\/strong>
\nThe National Oil Corporation can bring order to the chaos in this sector if it is managed by competent professionals who understand the history of the sector and the global market, and who are familiar with the manoeuvres of middlemen and the schemes of the mafia.<\/strong>
\nI fear, however, that these interests may conspire against the corporation’s establishment and continued operation.<\/strong>
\nI hope that Lieutenant General Al-Kabbashi, who is currently overseeing the sector, will be able to monitor the movements of the mafia operating in what has become a form of terror within this sector, prevent any attempts to undermine the corporation, and push forward with concluding the Aramco deal.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adel El-Baz 1 The most welcome news I have heard in recent days is the return of the National Oil Corporation, following the Ministry of Justice\u2019s approval of its law. This is a sound decision because it strikes at the sector’s centres of corruption and ends the era of chaos. 2 The Ministry of Energy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62059","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=62059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62060,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62059\/revisions\/62060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}