India to get oil from OVL's Sudan field

New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) second oilfield in Sudan has began crude oil production with output expected to reach 50,000 barrels per day by year end.

Sudan's Block 5A, where ONGC's overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd has 24.125 per cent stake, began oil production on June 26, a company official said.

"Currently, Thar Jath field in Block 5A is producing 38,000 barrels per day (bdp) but we hope to stabilize production to 40,000 bpd very soon. Mala field in the same block would come to production in 2007 with an output of 10,000 bpd, which would rise to 20,000 bpd by 2008. Our share from the entire 5A output would be 15,000 bpd," he said.

OVL currently has 25 per cent stake in Sudan's Greater Nile Oil Project (Block 1, 2 and 4), which produces 280,000 barrels per day.

The Thar Jath field is located about 900km south of Khartoum within the prolific Muglad Basin.

Crude oil from Thar Jath will be exported from Thar Jath through a 172-km export pipeline, which links the Central Processing Facilities (CPF) to the existing GNOP pump station at Heglig. The first produced oil from Block 5A will reach Port Sudan in August for its first commercial lifting, official said.

With Thar Jath, OVL now has five producing overseas assets, the others being GNOP in Sudan, Sakhlain-I in Russia, Syria and Vietnam.

The official said OVL's Syrian investment would yield 30,000 bdp to the company. The Syrian property will this year produce 160,000 bpd of oil.

Oil from both Sudan and Syria can be shipped to India.

The company, which has 20 per cent stake in Russia's Sakhalin-I oil and gas fields, would get its share of first oil in October-December quarter, he said adding oil from Far East Russian field would be offered to Indian refiners and upon its acceptance, shipped to India.

OVL's share in Sakhlain-I will be 50,000 bpd.

A gas field in Vietnam, where OVL has 45 per cent stake, is the fourth producing oil property. "Our share of oil and oil equivalent gas from the four producing properties abroad will be 140,000 bdp this fiscal," he said.