The Oil for Development programme in Sudan
The secession of South Sudan in 2011 has had dramatic consequences for Sudan’s income from oil production, as almost 80 per cent of the oil came from the southern part of the country.
Since 2005, Norway has been assisting both South Sudan and Sudan with the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and later agreements.
A programme agreement between the governments of Sudan and Norway was signed in 2012. In 2016, Norway and Sudan signed a new four-year agreement for an OfD programme, building on the achievements from the previous phase.
Due to the volatile security and political circumstances in Sudan in 2019, the cooperation was put on hold for most of the year. Sudan has requested a continuation of the support from 2020 onwards.
Key achievements of programme activities
Increased institutional capacity
- A report on petroleum legacy waste (drill cuttings and mud, sludge, chemicals) describing amounts, properties and treatment and disposal options was submitted to the General Directorate of Environment, Health and Safety (GDEHS). The report was based on inspection and sampling carried out in the field by a joint Bridge Consult/GDEHS team and lab analysis in Norway and Khartoum.
- The Norwegian Mapping Authority hosted a group from the Ministry of Energy and Mining (MEM) to work on Petro GIS. The project builds capacity for MEM staff to be able to conduct similar projects without OfD support in the future. The intention is to establish a sustainable infrastructure for acquiring, maintaining and distributing spatial oil related data.
- New equipment for tape transcription was procured and transported to Khartoum with OfD support. The format of the available data needs to be transcribed to be usable and storable.
- The EOR project for the Neem Field started in December 2018 with Petrad assigned as Norwegian consultant. Two visits to Khartoum, a kick-off meeting and a work session with both the reservoir simulation group and laboratory group were executed.