Sudan's energy production
Sudan's energy production is characterized by a complex interplay of natural resources and socio-economic challenges. Despite having significant oil reserves, which account for a notable portion of China's oil imports, a substantial segment of the Sudanese population relies predominantly on firewood for energy. The country has been impacted by a history of conflict and underdevelopment, resulting in limited access to electricity for much of its populace. As of 2022, only 63% of Sudan's people had access to electric power, despite ambitious projects like the Merowe Dam, which began operating in 2009.
The energy landscape is further complicated by the division of Sudan and South Sudan in 2011, which created tensions over oil revenue sharing and infrastructure usage, particularly concerning the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline. While Sudan's total primary energy supply is substantial, much is lost due to inefficiencies in energy processing, especially in charcoal production. Biomass remains a dominant energy source domestically, reflecting the economic realities faced by many households. As Sudan continues to navigate its energy needs, the challenge of transitioning to more sustainable and diverse energy sources remains paramount, alongside addressing the socio-economic conditions that currently limit access to cleaner energy alternatives.
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Sudan's energy production
Summary: Having split in 2011 into two nations—Sudan and South Sudan—this Arab–African territory astride the Upper Nile River embodies a host of ironies. Rich enough in oil to account for one in every 20 barrels of the oil consumed by China, Sudan’s impoverished people nonetheless rely mainly on firewood as an energy fuel and as a cash commodity.
After more than fifty years of violent internal strife, including two major civil wars lasting a combined thirty-nine years, the east African state of Sudan split in July 2011 into two new internationally recognized countries: Sudan and South Sudan. The unitary nation had been the largest country in Africa by land mass. After the division, the land area of Sudan was 1.8 million square miles, while South Sudan was 0.6 million square miles. The population of Sudan in 2024 was about 50.4 million.
While the two nations possess substantial oil resources, firewood is a dominant internal energy source. Both countries’ infrastructures are underdeveloped, with most of the population yet to be connected to an electricity grid—even though Sudan has completed such ambitious projects as the $1.2 billion, 1,250-megawatt Merowe dam on the Nile, which began producing in 2009. China plays a role not only as a customer but also as a strategic investor in the area’s hydropower and petroleum production and export, and the Asian giant has been called upon to help the two Sudans put their past differences aside and cooperate in infrastructure development that could benefit the citizens of both lands—and stabilize this portion of global energy supplies.
Te stated goal of the National Electricity Corporation is to deliver electricity to 90 percent of the population, up from about 35 percent as of 2013 to 63 percent in 2022. Sudan needs financial mechanisms to enable poor people to afford other sources of energy, as well as livelihood opportunities that do not depend on firewood collection and cottage-industry scale charcoal production.
Biomass is still both the dominant source of energy consumed domestically and an economic commodity for many. People collect firewood nearby their homes and sell it to local traders, or use it to make charcoal; deforestation is an ongoing concern. The former nation of Sudan had conducted two major energy assessments, first in 1981 and then in 2001. Findings included that biomass use had decreased slightly, to 78 percent of the total energy consumption in 2001, compared to 83 percent in 1981. Nearly all this consumption was by the domestic sector. Wood-fired brick kilns are the second-largest consumer of biomass energy, driven by a building boom in major towns.
Sudan contributed just 0.06 percent of global CO2 emissions in 2021. However, this represented a 256 percent increase since 2000.
Exporting Oil
The major hydrocarbon deposits were discovered beginning in the 1960s, in the Muglad Basin and Melut Basin, situated in the two countries’ common frontier region and extending into the heart of South Sudan. The major pipeline for the region, the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline that started pumping in 1999, originates in this area on the South Sudan side of the border, and runs northeast through Sudan to the Port Sudan refinery and export facility on the Red Sea. (The pipeline runs through the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, at about its midpoint). As of 2021, reserves of crude oil in Sudan were estimated at 1.25 billion barrels.
Landlocked South Sudan depends upon its northern neighbor for export capability, while Sudan depends upon its southern counterpart for the fees it charges for using its pipeline. A proposed split of oil revenues was at the heart of the countries’ breakup accord—but no final agreement was reached on transit fees to be paid by South Sudan for use of the pipeline. The recognized common border goes right through the middle of the vast oil field region; a handful of zones of the borderline have yet to be exactly agreed upon.
In April 2012, South Sudan sent a military force into one of these areas, the Heglig oil field. After ten days, the force withdrew under counterpressure from the Sudanese military. Prior to the action, Heglig produced roughly half of Sudan’s total national oil production of 115,000 barrels per day. Together it is thought the countries could be producing more than 500,000 barrels per day, with 80 percent of that amount available for export. However, with the volatile political situation, numerous interruptions have occurred, with a production shutdown by South Sudan in January 2012 and then the Heglig face-off in April. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) notes that any production shutdown “largely affects Asia, as most companies operating oil fields are from China, Malaysia, and India. Additionally, oil exports from Sudan and south Sudan are almost exclusively sent to Asian markets.”
Indeed, it has been hoped that the government of China could help smooth relations between Sudan and South Sudan; China depended on the two nations for 5 percent of its oil imports—amounting to fully two-thirds of Sudan and South Sudan’s exports in 2011, the EIA reported. The next largest customers in 2011 were Malaysia (9 percent), Japan (8 percent), United Arab Emirates (5 percent), India (4 percent), and Singapore (4 percent). The China National Petroleum Corporation—the giant, state-owned Chinese energy conglomerate—owns 40 percent of the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline, and serves as its operator. However, after many years of exporting oil, Sudan began consistently importing it in 2008 as production declined. this shift occurred in part because the country had not invested in exploration and development of the resource. By 2021, Sudan was importing 157,641 terajoules of oil to meet its energy needs.
Energy Supply
Sudan’s total primary energy supply in 2015 was 15.7 Mtoe (megatons of oil equivalent), but the total final consumption was 10.7 Mtoe. The gap marks a high amount of energy loss, mainly due to the gross inefficiencies of processing charcoal. Households used 43 percent of the total consumption in 2015, a decline from the 2001 level of 60 percent. This percentage change, however, was not due to a decrease in household consumption but to the booming thirst for oil products by the transport sector. Transport accounted for 25 percent of total consumption in 2015, services and industry about 14 percent each, and the mostly subsistence agriculture and forestry sector less than 1 percent. Total annual electricity consumption is estimated at 10.6 terawatt-hours (TWh), of which more than half is consumed by the residential sector, and the rest by the industrial/commercial/agricultural sectors. The installed generation capacity in 2014 had been 3.7 gigawatts—boosted greatly by the construction of the Merowe dam in 2009 and the expansion of the Roseires Dam in 2013. Electricity in 2012 was produced 31 percent from fossil fuels and 69 percent from renewable sources, primarily hydroelectric plants.
Bibliography
European Coalition on Oil in Sudan. “Reports.” www.ecosonline.org/reports.
Hamid, Mohamed, et al. Sudan’s Renewable Energy Masterplan Study. Khartoum: Government of Sudan, 2005.
Ministry of Energy and Mining. Sudan Energy Handbook. Khartoum: Government of Sudan, 2009.
Practical Action. Poor People’s Energy Outlook 2010. Rugby, UK: Practical Action, 2010.
"Sudan." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 7 Aug. 2024, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/sudan/. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
"Sudan." International Energy Agency, 2022, www.iea.org/countries/sudan. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.
United Nations Environment Programme. “Enlighten Initiative. Country Lighten Assessments.” www.enlighten-initiative.org/CountryLightingAssessments/test/tabid/29417/Default.aspx.