The Sudan Handbook

56 the sudan handbook

figure at 4–5,000 kg. Eastern Sudan also has large deposits of gypsum,

and in  2006     14,000 tonnes a year were being mined.

Oil

Sudan’s oil is mostly quite far from the northern riverain area. One of

the striking aspects of the exploitation of this resource has been the

efficiency with which the revenue from it has – despite the distance

involved – been largely channelled to Greater Khartoum (though the

revenues are now shared with the Government of Southern Sudan). The

oil concessions run across Sudan, mostly sloping down from west to east,

from southern Darfur to eastern Equatoria; there are concession blocks

around Khartoum and in the east, but it is not clear what reserves these

northern fields may actually hold. Most of the known oil reserves are in

the south. The pipelines run north to Khartoum state, where one refinery

is located, and then on to Port Sudan, where there is another refinery, and

from where the oil is shipped, most going to the China and Japan.

Not all of Sudan’s oil is the same. That from the border area whether

greater Bahr al-Ghazal meets Kordofan, which was the first area to be

commercially exploited, is called Nile blend; it is of a higher quality

than the Dar blend which comes from Upper Nile. Fula blend, from the

Kordofan-Darfur borderland, is used for domestic consumption.

Since commercial production began, in 1999, oil has transformed the

economy of the central state – though not of Sudan as a whole. In 2008,

oil accounted for   95   per cent of Sudan’s exports, by value, and for     60  

per cent of overall government revenue; during the CPA period, the

Government of Southern Sudan has developed as an institution which is

completely dependent on oil, which provides     98   per cent of its revenue.

This governmental dependence is the corollary of a very high level of

state involvement in the oil industry. While the precise terms vary in

different concession blocks, the basic model has been for joint ventures

between government corporations and foreign investors. These allow

close government control; they have also allowed the elaboration of

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors a^ corporate^ system^ in^ northern^ Sudan,^ in^ which^ there^ is^ a^ very^ close^

(www.riftvalley.net).