India and Sudan will further expand cooperation in the oil and gas sector. The decision was taken at a meeting of petroleum minister Murli Deora and his Sudanese counterpart Lual A Deng in New Delhi today.

The two ministers, who met on the sidelines of the International Conference Petrotech-2010, decided to engage oil companies of the two countries in greater discussions.

Deora, while welcoming the visiting minister, expressed keen desire of Indian oil PSUs to further invest in the hydrocarbon sector of Sudan.

The Sudanese side will make a detailed presentation to the oil PSUs about forthcoming investment opportunities in the exploration blocks. Sudan will has also been asked to utilise ONGC's expertise in enhancing production in the existing fields.

In this regard, the India side underlined ONGC's success in increasing production at the Greater Nile Oil Project from about 220,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) to 320,000 BOPD, besides raising the oil reserves in the fields.

Besides, OVL is also keen on increasing crude oil production level in the matured fields at optimum cost through IOR/EOR technology, they said.

The two sides decided to hold a meeting of a joint working group (JWG) on hydrocarbon sector soon.

Sudan has also offered to export more crude oil to India. Indian companies like IOC are big importers of crude and would be interested to explore the possibilities in this regard. IOC will also assist Sudan in the production of bio-fuels.

India, on its part offered to impart training to oil sector personnel of Sudan in the entire hydrocarbon value chain.