FACTBOX-Foreign oil investment in Sudan

Sept 9 (Reuters) - South Sudan could be Africa's newest
oil-producing country within two years if southerners vote for
independence in a long-awaited January 2011 referendum.

Here are some facts about Sudan and its oil industry.

OIL INDUSTRY

* Sudan produced 480,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in
2008 and has proven oil reserves of 6.7 billion barrels. More
than 80 percent of Sudan's known remaining oil reserves are
located in the south of the country, but most infrastructure
including pipelines and refineries are in the north.

* Sudan's production is being driven by new reserves being
brought on stream, while production from established oilfields
is in decline. Future production will depend heavily on whether
new reserves are discovered fast enough to offset total country
declines which could begin as soon as 2010.

* Sudanese state-oil firm Sudapet said in July it aimed to
increase Sudan's oil production to 922,000 bpd "in the near
future" by using enhanced oil recovery techniques. It gave no
precise time frame.

* Foreign activity in Sudan's oil industry has come mainly
from Asian investment, while Western oil companies have been
reluctant to work in the country due to U.S. sanctions and
higher risks associated with the country's instability.

* During years of civil war, Western companies came under
intense shareholder pressure to exit Sudan. Foreign investors
still face the risk of kidnappings and instability despite a
peace agreement signed in 2005.

* China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) [CNPET.UL],
Malaysia's Petronas [PETR.UL] and India's Oil and Natural Gas
Corp (ONGC) are among the foreign oil firms in Sudan.

* French Total SA (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) owns 32.5 percent of a
consortium that holds the 118,000 square km (45,548 sq miles)
block B, the largest concession in the south. Largely unexplored
because of the civil war, the north-south petroleum commission
has said Total must begin exploration operations as soon as a
new company is found to replace the 20 percent of the consortium
that is open since U.S. company Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) was
forced to leave because of U.S. sanctions.

GEOGRAPHY, WAR AND SANCTIONS

* U.S. sanctions on Sudan were first put in place in
November 1997 after the U.S. accused Sudan of support for
international terrorism. Further sanctions were put in place in
2006 after U.N. resolutions decrying the violence in the Darfur
region. The south is exempted from wider sanctions but U.S.
businesses are forbidden from any engagement in Sudan's oil
or petrochemical industries, north or south.

* Sudan is in North Africa, with a Red Sea port,
between Egypt and Eritrea with a population of 41 million. The
north is predominantly Muslim and the south is largely
Christian. The average life expectancy is 51 years.

* Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during
most of the second half of the 20th century. These conflicts
were rooted in northern economic, political, and social
domination of the largely non-Muslim, non-Arab southern
Sudanese.

* The first civil war ended in 1972 but conflict broke out
again in 1983. The second war and famine-related effects
resulted in more than four million people displaced and more
than two million deaths over a period of two decades, mostly in
the south. Fighting in oil-producing areas between the southern
rebels and Khartoum-sponsored southern militias became an
important part of the war in the 1990s.

* Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with the signing of
several accords. The final North/South Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005, gave the south it's own
semi-autonomous government, headed by the former southern
rebels. After the six-year interim period a referendum for
southern independence is scheduled to be held in 2011. South
Sudan receives 50 percent of government revenues from wells
south of a highly contentious north-south border under the
accord. The south is 98 percent dependent on these revenues.

* North-south relations over oil have been strained since
the signing of the peace accord with fighting breaking out in
the oil-rich Abyei region, contested by both sides. Two
companies were also given concessions by southern officials
shortly after the peace accord was signed. Moldova's Ascom Group
was allowed into block 5b and White Nile Plc was given access to
Block Ba, a subsidiary of the block B, even though Khartoum had
previously given the concessions to a Petronas-led consortium
and the Total consortium respectively.
(Compiled by Joe Brock in London and Skye Wheeler in Juba;
editing by Christopher Johnson)