INTERVIEW - Sudan oil output falls short of estimates - minister

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's oil production averaged 470,000 barrels per day in 2008/09 below estimates of 500,000 bpd, and plans to build a new refinery in Port Sudan have been shelved indefinitely, the oil minister said on Sunday.

Al-Zubeir Ahmed al-Hassan, also the minister of mining, said Sudan was witnessing a "gold rush" with commercial concessions being awarded to new companies and small-time mining exploding throughout Africa's largest country.

"The average (output) had been expected to reach 500,000 (bpd) but the actual is 470,000," Hassan told Reuters in an interview.

"Next year we are trying to be realistic... in the pricing and production."

He said production may reach over 500,000 bpd next year but official estimates were only 480,000 bpd.

Problems included delays by contractors and in implementing new methods to reduce large amounts of water produced with both the sweet Nile Blend and the heavier Dar Blend.

Hassan gave the first reply to anti-corruption group Global Witness who said Sudan's official crude figures were less that those published by China's CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation), the major stakeholder in Sudan's oil sector.

The group said Sudan's semi-autonomous south, which is due 50 percent of revenues from oil fields in the south, could be owed more than $600 million in back payments.