Sudan and CNPC signed three new oil and gas cooperation agreements.

* Sudan output falls short of estimates
* Plans for new oil refinery Port Sudan shelved indefinitely

The Sudan’s state minister of Energy and Mining, stresses the importance of conducting a proper feasibility study in pursuit of building a less costly oil refinery in Southern Sudan.

Oil and gas engineering company CPECC, a full-owned subsidiary of CNPC, has won contracts worth 260 million dollar for seven Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects located in Sudan’s Oil Block 6.

GOSS has embarked on building its first ever oil refinery in Akon, Warrap state. The Government stressed the importance of indigenizing the operations of the oil sector so that “Southern Sudan is not caught up” in case it chooses secession in 2011.

GOSS has approved plans to build a debut, $2 billion, oil refinery in Akon, Warap state, which will serve all the seven states west of the Nile. It is estimated to take about a maximum of 36 months to build.

A delegation from Nairobi is in Khartoum to fine-tune last year's agreement for oil importation of 500,000 barrels of crude per month.

Beijing affirms that Chinese companies working in Sudan will continue operation, after discrepancies in oil production figures were revealed by Global Witness, but are also keen to deal in transparency with the government of Sudan.

The Global Witness report, Fuelling Mistrust: the need for transparency in Sudan’s oil industry, is the first public analysis of Sudan’s oil figures. It documents how the oil figures published by the Government of National Unity in Khartoum are smaller than the equivalent figures published by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the operator of the oil blocks.(text version)

WNPOC has hit significant amounts of dry, non-associated natural gas at two wells drilled in Block 8