Sudan and South Sudan assure India about safety of OVL's oil assets

New Delhi, Apr 5 (PTI) Sudan and South Sudan have assured India that its over USD 2.5 billion oil assets in those countries were safe and will not be affected by the ongoing "skirmishes" between the two over oil and territorial issues. This was conveyed by the leaderships of both in Khartoum, capital of Sudan and Juba, capital of South Sudan to Amarendra Khatua, India's Special Envoy and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, during his visit there last week, government sources said Wednesday. Terming the ongoing "skirmishes" as "matter of great concern", the sources said the move to send the special envoy was necessitated to seek assurance from the two Sudans for India's oil interests, communicate India's support for the peace initiative and strengthening the ties. The conflict between the two Sudans escalated last month when South Sudan, which came into existence last year, shut down its entire oil production to retaliate against Sudan which has most of the energy processing infrastructure. This also led to a loss of USD 0.4 million per day to the project, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., run jointly by ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), the overseas arm of India's state-owned oil major ONGC. China and Malaysia are also partners in this project. South Sudan has the largest oil reserve in Africa after Angola with 85 per cent of the oil fields of the undivided Sudan. However, in the absence of any processing facility, it is seeking help from India and others to build pipelines and refineries. PTI