Oil Discovery in Sudan
Oil exploration in Sudan started in 1959, when Italy's Agip oil company was granted concessions in the Red Sea area, Agib carried out seismic surveys and drilled six wells. Five other oil companies followed Agip into the Red Sea area; these are Oceanic Oil Company, France's Total, Texas Eastern, Union Texas and Chevron. No pronounced success was achieved for the next fifteen years.
The only successful results were achieved by Chevron in 1974, where dry gas and gas condensate were found at Basha'ir-1 and Suakin-1 wells. Chevron estimated possible production of 50m cubic feet of dry gas and one thousand barrels of gas condensate per day. No oil was found, however, the discovery of natural gas in the Red Sea offshore Sudan raises some hope that there also may be untapped oil deposits in the area. The government of Sudan has to date awarded exploration licenses covering 22,860 sq miles offshore. In addition, nearly 200,000 sq miles onshore are covered by exploration permits.
Petroleum discovery in western and southern Sudan is a by-product of the extensive groundwater research which was conducted in southern Darfur and Kordofan during the late sixties and early seventies by the newly formed Rural Water Development Corporation (RWDC). Prior to these studies, it was thought that most of these areas are mainly basement rock overlain by a thin veneer of unconsolidated sedimentary layers which was referred to as Umm Ruwaba Formation and underlain by the unclassified and notorious Nubian Sandstone Formation. As the numbers of bores drilled for water increased, this simplistic interpretation started to disappear and was slightly modified by Tohami in his thesis (1974) where he introduced what he labelled “reworked Nubian” to describe the sediments which was discovered at a greater depth than previously thought and completely different from the traditional Umm Ruwaba and Nubain jargon.
Several geophysical Companies were hired by the RWDC in Southern Kordofan and Southern Darfur, but most of their work was concentrated on the margins of the basins which were considered as problem areas for locating water bores. Although the results were not very encouraging, nevertheless, the results showed a complicated pattern of structures which was later described as the Sudanese Rift System (Salama, 1987).
The first indications of the deep sedimentary basins appeared in an E-W gravity cross section in southern Darfur which was designed by the author to be perpendicular to the direction of ground water flow. The preliminary results of the hydrogeological studies at that time showed that the ground water is flowing from the north to the south, which was similar to the rainfall pattern which is increasing towards the south (usually you expect groundwater flowing from high rainfall, high recharge to low rainfall discharge zones). The groundwater flow was also found to be opposite to the regional direction of surface runoff which is flowing towards the north. These results indicated a closed basin and possible groundwater discharge in the south in the Sudd region. The proposed gravity survey was conducted by Hunting Geology and Geophysics. The results indicated a sedimentary deposits ranging from 5 to 8 kms in the central part of the Baggara basin. Speculations were spreading (among RWDC geologist) and every one was talking about the possibility of oil in these basins. Rumors of oil fire emanating from these areas seen by satellites were reported in the daily news. The one strange phenomenon which I noticed is that the few copies of the geophysical report suddenly disappeared without a trace.
The real indication of presence of oil was encountered while drilling a water bore (By Rural water Corporation Rigs) 10 km west of Abu Gabra (Darfur Province) along what was interpreted later as a fault zone. This was followed by the drilling of deep wells by Chevron in the southern areas which proved the presence of oil bearing formations.
Water and Pasture are the real triggers of the conflict in Darfur
I worked in Darfur for five years from the late sixties to early seventies. My work was with the newly established Rural Water Corporation. Its main task was to provide and improve water supplies for the rural communities and their ever increasing animal wealth of cattle, camels, sheep and goats. It was apparent at the time that this increasing number of animals is causing great stress on the limited pastures which were also dwindling due to the decreasing rainfall. The declining rainfall pattern and its erratic nature affected the water and pasture availability for the Baggara, Rizeigat, Hebaniya and other nomadic Arabs in the south and the Hebala Rizeigat camel herding in the north. In between in the central areas the Fur and Zaghawa and other small African tribes were living in semi-sedentary villages along alluvial channels flowing from the Jebel Marra massif. The shallow aquifers were just enough to supply them with water for their small number of sheep and goats and irrigation of small batches of vegetables and legumes. The migratory patterns of the camel herders from the north who have their customary problems with the settled Meidob and Zaghaw started to have other problems with the settlers around Wadi Kutum one of the well established irrigation areas from the alluvial aquifers. Few Arab tribes settled in between the Africans in the western J. Marra water shed.
Great effort was made to establish water points along the migratory routes. New water points were also created in virgin areas of the Qoz Dango in the south west of Darfur, along the Kutum, Wadi Howar, Libya road in the north-west and also along the Mellit, Malha, Meidob areas in the north-east. But, by the early seventies and due to decreasing rainfall and the failure of the millet crop for several years; the Meidob, Zaghwa and other tribes started to migrate south.
Major towns and cities become overcrowded with the unsettled villagers. El Fasher, Nyala, Zalingei, Genina, Daein, Buram, Abu Gabra and Abu Materig were facing major water problems even before the great invasion of the refugees. These places will never have adequate water supplies; groundwater aquifers are not replenished, alluvial aquifers are used to dryness, surface water dams, haffirs and fulas never fill up as they used to do in the past except in very wet years. Water shortage will become the norm and inhabitants will have to live on rations and quota, and as pastures would have been overgrazed, animal numbers will be dramatically reduced.
I am not an Arab and I am not a Muslim, I worked with both when Darfur used to be the most peaceful place in Africa. I used to travel with my pickup all over Darfur, sleep anywhere under the starry sky, share Arabs, Fur, Meidob, or Zaghwa their meals. Conflicts were easily solved by peaceful discussions around the fire in the evening. Bores, dams and haffirs were decided based on population distribution migratory routes and pasture availability. I can clearly see that the conflict has nothing to do with Arabs against Africans, or between Africans or between Arabs. It all has to do with the water and pasture resources. If the problem is not solved along these lines, it will never be solved. If the people are fighting for discovered or yet to be discovered oil or mineral resources, I think their fight is in vain.