China National Petroleum Corp, parent of PetroChina Co Ltd (HK0857), has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with the Sudanese government for exploration areas in northern Sudan, CNPC internal publication China Petroleum Daily reported.
Under the 20-year contract, CNPC will have exploration rights to Block 13 in shallow water on the Red Sea, with an area of about 3.8 square kilometers, it said.
The exploration period is six years, the paper said.
CNPC, China’s largest oil and gas producer, will conduct exploration jointly with Indonesia state oil and gas company Pertamina and Sudan’s state-run Sudapet.
Separately, a Chinese official in Khartoum said CNPC will take up to a 40% stake in the oil exploration project in northern Sudan.
"China National Petroleum Corp will take a stake of 35% to 40% in the project," Hao Hongshe, an official with the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office of the Chinese embassy in Sudan, told Agence France-Presse by phone.
He said the project, signed last week between the company and the Sudanese government, is still in the initial stages, with the size of the investment to be decided later.
CNPC already has a range of other energy projects in Sudan.

(Rigzone)