Pursuing Transparency in Sudan’s Oil Industry
Publisher: Sudan Democracy First Group
Date: 2016
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance
Countries: Sudan
The exploration and production of Sudan's oil resources has assumed a high priority for consecutive regimes that have ruled the county since independence. Despite discovery and exploration by Numeri's Regime (1969-1984), the Ingraz regime (1989-present) has succeeded, against formidable internal and external challenged, in producing oil for local consumption and export.
Success in the production of oil and its export gave the Ingraz regime a sene of ownership of all the operation in this field. The hostile national and international contexts that eventually led to industry – with the industry being a key lifeline for its survival. As such, the oil industry started and developed in an environment characterized by a lack of transparency and prone to corruption.
The lack of transparency has raised suspicions and allegations of corruption that encompass all updtream and downstream operations of the oil industry. these have included issues of volume, reporting, reserves, entitlements of foreign companies, and allocations to producing states and distribution companies.
Although Sudan lost two-thirds of its known oil reserves in 2011, following the secession of South Sudan, allegations of corruption and lack of transparency continue. It is of utmost important for the current Ingaz regime and any other future government, to tackle the lack of transparency to dispel current and future accusations of corruption. In the meantime, the current government must take all accusations of corruption within the oil sector seriously through proper independent investigation and publishing of all information pertaining to these accusations and the oil sector in general. The implementation of the recommendations detailed at the end of this report will help to lay the foundation for transparency in Sudan in general and in the oil sector in particular.