Country profile: Sudan

Sudan is developing its significant hydrocarbon resources. The country’s oil exports, which have increased sharply since the completion of a major oil-export pipeline in 1999, account for 70 percent of total export revenues. Additional growth in Sudan’s hydrocarbon sector will likely occur with a refurbished infrastructure, which has seen little improvement since the beginning of the country’s civil conflicts in 1955. As of January 2007, according to the Sudanese Minister of State for Energy and Mines, Sudan is considering joining the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at some point in the future. In January 2005, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the south signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended 21-years of civil war.

Prior to the signing, several important issues were agreed upon by the two parties including the sharing of oil revenues (50:50). Also in 2005, President Bashir formed a border commission tasked with defining the border between northern and southern Sudan, in accordance to the CPA. Much of Sudan’s oil producing region lies in the disputed border area. In 2004, Sudan’s energy consumption mix was dominated by oil (93 percent), with the remainder coming from hydroelectricity (7 percent). Natural gas, coal, nuclear and other renewables are currently not part of the country’s energy consumption mix. Between 1984-2004, the share of oil in Sudan’s energy mix increased from 86 percent to 93 percent. Hydroelectricity consumption experienced a decrease, during the same time period, from 14 percent to 7 percent.