The oil sector in Sudan is close to collapse, after more than 13 months of war, following the burning of fields and the stopping of the only refinery and pumping stations, in addition to the sabotage of South Sudan’s crude oil export pipelines, which increases the troubles of the exhausted economy.
- Sudan is the smallest producer in the OPEC Plus alliance, and produces about 60,000 barrels of oil per day before its production declined after the war.
- Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil production capabilities following the secession of South Sudan In the year 2011.
The Rapid Support Forces transferred the war from military confrontations on the front lines to the oil fields in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, and the refinery facilities in northern Khartoum.
The Minister of Energy and Oil, Mohieddin Mohamed Saeed, told the official Sudanese News Agency that rehabilitating the oil sector that was destroyed during the war costs $5 billion, pointing to the decline in oil production throughout this period, which led to the loss of about 7 million barrels of oil that the country was deprived of. Produced due to war.
The minister explained that the damage in the oil sector included oil installations and power stations, and the loss of crude oil and oil derivatives in strategic warehouses produced by the Khartoum refinery.
Sudanese Minister of Energy and Oil: Rehabilitating the oil sector that was destroyed during the war costs $5 billion
Details of losses in the Sudanese oil sector
The war affected the Balila field in West Kordofan state, which produces 16,000 barrels of crude per day. Balila airport was completely burned, company offices were looted, and the Rapid Support Forces destroyed all its facilities. The sabotage operations included the offices of the Petro Energy Company, which owns the field in partnership with the Chinese National Company. .
According to an official report, 10 fields in West Kordofan state went out of production, including Diffra, Neem, Um Adara, Moga, and Barsaya, at a time when the oil wells were sabotaged.
In the Darfur region, the Rapid Support Forces targeted oil fields and attacked the Sufyan field in East Darfur state. Company stores and power stations were also looted, and oil machinery in the fields was destroyed.
The attacks caused the suspension of oil production in the Sufyan field, and the sabotage included the Sharif, Abu Jabrah, and Zarqa Umm Hadid fields. The looting included cars, furniture, cables for wells, workers’ housing, spare parts stores, and power stations.
The most recent incident was the burning of parts of an oil production field in the Zarqa Umm Hadid area, where fire completely consumed the largest producing wells last week.
Civil leaders said that what happened was an act of sabotage, intended to disrupt and destroy oil wells in the region.
Jelly strainer
Al-Jili oil refinery (70 kilometers north of Khartoum) was the first site captured by the Rapid Support Forces since the first days of the war, because they were participating in guarding it, due to its proximity to one of their bases, as it was about 7 kilometers away from it.
Al-Jili is one of the largest refineries in Sudan. It is linked to an export pipeline to the port of Bashayer on the Red Sea coast in eastern Sudan, with a length of 1,610 kilometers. Its production capacity is 100,000 barrels per day, and it produces about 10,000 tons of gasoline and 800 tons of cooking gas per day.
The refinery was subjected to sabotage, especially the oil warehouses and corporate offices, and the exchange of bombing affected part of the control center, strategic derivatives warehouses, and part of the pipeline, and the stoppage losses are estimated at about 5 million dollars per day.
Sudan benefits from the oil revenues produced by its southern neighbor, as Khartoum receives fees for transporting South Sudanese oil (170,000 barrels per day) via the Sudanese pipeline to the port of Bashaer on the Red Sea coast.
The Rapid Support Forces obstructed logistical links and transport pipelines between the oil fields in South Sudan and the port, and took control of the Al-Ailfoun area in eastern Khartoum, which contains one of the southern oil pumping stations, which led to the cessation of pumping.
The former Undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Oil, Walid al-Assad, said that the war inflicted great losses on the oil sector in its three departments (production fields, oil pipelines, and the Khartoum refinery).
Al-Assad explains, in a comment to Al Jazeera Net, that production in the oil fields has declined significantly, while the Balila field in the West Kurdan state and its surroundings have gone out of service.
He pointed out that production is currently limited to the Heglig field, whose production has declined from 35,000 to 18,000 barrels per day, while all drilling and maintenance operations for wells and oil processing facilities have stopped, and production losses are estimated at two million dollars per day.
Al-Assad says that the war exacerbated the logistical problems in operating the pumping stations distributed along the pipeline, which led to the hardening of the crude and the occurrence of breaches in the pipe wall, and the complete cessation of pumping of “Dar Mix” produced in the state of South Sudan, the export of which constitutes 60% of the total output. The National Bank of the South, and thus Sudan loses a million dollars a day in fees for transit and processing of South Sudan’s oil.
Al-Assad adds that the exchange of fire inside and around the refinery destroyed a significant portion of its machinery and warehouses, which led to it being completely out of service for more than 7 months. Thus, Sudan lost a major source that provided 32% of its total oil needs.
He pointed out that to compensate for this shortage, Sudan needs about 200 million dollars per month to finance the import of oil derivatives.
To stave off losses and restart the oil industry, Al-Assad believes that an accurate engineering survey is required to estimate the cost of returning the facilities to operation, but the initial estimates, the spokesman adds, are no less than two billion dollars.
For his part, economic expert Haitham Fathi says that the cessation of oil production led to the state bearing all the costs of continuing the electricity supply for nearly a year.
According to the expert’s statement to Al Jazeera Net, the continuation of the war and its entry into the second year, in addition to the expansion of the systematic destruction of the oil sector’s infrastructure, is pushing the sector into a dark tunnel from which it will not be possible to emerge soon.
The same spokesman believes that what happened will cause Sudan great suffering, and adds that the potential damage will be huge economically, environmentally, and humanly, affecting workers inside and outside the oil facilities.
