Chinese companies are ready to return to Sudan at a moment’s notice once security and stability are restored to the northeast African country embroiled in civil war, according to a Chinese official.
Since fighting began in April last year, Chinese oil and gas projects worth several billion dollars have been halted or destroyed. Chinese-initiated and funded operations have been grounded and more than 1,300 Chinese citizens have since been evacuated.
Zheng Xiang, the chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in Sudan, recently told the state-owned Sudan News Agency that Chinese companies were eager to resume operations to help rebuild the country, while talks were underway with lenders to resolve debt problems. unload.
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“We hope that security and stability will prevail in the near future so that we can resume work as soon as possible,” Zheng said in the interview released this week.
The pledge comes following a meeting between Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing in September.
Agreements made during that conversation set the wheels in motion.
“We have communicated with the Sudanese side. We are working together to put the results of the summit into practice step by step,” Zheng said.
The issue of Sudan’s debt to China was also discussed in November, when a high-level Sudanese delegation visited Beijing.
“We believe that the debt problem will not be an obstacle to economic and trade cooperation between China and Sudan,” Zheng said.
According to Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, Chinese lenders made 66 loans to Sudan worth $6.3 billion between 2000 and 2018, but repayments stalled when the country fell into civil war last year.
That was when fighting broke out between two rival factions – the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) – for control of the country. At least 24,000 people have been killed so far, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a group that has been tracking the conflict since it began.
Sudanese displaced by the civil war arrived last month in the town of Gedaref, near the Ethiopian border. Photo: AFP alt=Sudanese people displaced by the civil war arrived last month in the town of Gedaref, near the Ethiopian border. Photo: AFP>
At the time, China was in discussions about financing major oil and gas projects in Sudan, including an oil refinery and a mega slaughterhouse.
The two countries have a long history of oil and gas cooperation, dating back to a 1990s agreement to develop oil fields through the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). At the time, Sudan supplied about 5 percent of China’s imported oil. But production has fallen significantly since 2011, when the oil-rich south broke away to become the independent nation of South Sudan.
At FOCAC, Al-Burhan also met Dai Houliang, CEO of CNPC, and “had discussions on the process of China-Sudan cooperation in oil and gas,” Zheng said.
He said CNPC showed great interest in working with the Sudanese side to continue the partnership, adding that the idea of building an oil refinery in Sudan was put forward during a meeting between Chinese and Sudanese officials.
“We remain in communication and discussion with the Sudanese side on this crucial issue,” Zheng said.
During a recent trip to China, Sudanese Minister of Energy and Oil Dr. Mohi-Eddin Naeem Mohamed Saeed Beijing to expand investments in upstream and downstream activities. In a speech at the Oil and Gas Equipment Conference and Exhibition in Xian city, he stressed the need to work with Chinese companies to rebuild war-ravaged infrastructure in the petroleum sector.
Earlier, in August, the minister said Sudan was negotiating with Chinese companies to rehabilitate the Khartoum refinery, inspect and repair pipelines and resume oil exploration. The refinery was built by CNPC and has been operational since 2000. Previously it had a daily production capacity of 100,000 barrels.
Talks are also underway about building a large slaughterhouse in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, Zheng said. In 2020, China agreed to provide $63 million to finance construction. However, the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 military coup and the civil war have delayed it.
However, Zheng reaffirmed Chinese interest in the project. He said discussions were taking place over the details of the slaughterhouse.
He also spoke about the Al-Geneina-Adri railway, which would run a railway line from Port Sudan to the center and west of the African continent, saying it was a “major and important project”.
An in-depth economic study had been conducted and the two countries had agreed to implement the project in phases, Zheng said.
“This year we met with the Minister of Transport and also discussed the issue and the eastern route of this crucial project,” he said.
Zheng said Khartoum had several proposals, including starting the railway from eastern Sudan and extending it through the Kordofan and Darfur regions and then to West Africa.
The second option is to start from Eastern Sudan and extend to Wadi Halfa in the far north of the country.
Zheng said consultations with the Sudanese side will continue “to determine the priorities of this project and then determine its implementation… in different phases.”
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice covering China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP Facebook page Tweet pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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