INDIA's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, which is laying a 741-km long petroleum product pipeline in Sudan, will also build a $1.2 billion oil refinery in the country. "We had previously awarded the work of building a 100,000-brl/d refinery at Port Sudan to Malaysian firms, but the project could not take off. We have now mandated ONGC to build the refinery," Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining Awad Ahmed Al-Jazz said in January. Sudan wants to build the sixth refinery mainly for export of petroleum products to south and east African countries, he said. ONGC will build the refinery, which will refine Nile Blend crude oil produced in south Sudan, on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. It will take 32 months to build the refinery from the date of final signing of the concession agreement. ONGC's overseas subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd is handling the project, and has selected Indian firm Dodsal to handle the EPC (execution, production and construction) contract for the refinery. Sudan has also mandated ONGC to build a $200 million multi-products pipeline from the Khartoum refinery to Port Sudan. "Work on the pipeline has begun, and is expected to be completed by August," Mr Al-Jazz said. ONGC will raise non-recourse finance for funding the two projects. "This will be the largest non-recourse finance ever raised by an Indian company. We are getting Indian and European banking and financial institutions to fund the projects," ONGC's CEO Subir Raha said. The company already has a 25% stake in a producing oilfield in Sudan called the Greater Nile Oil Project, and has interests in two exploration blocks, 5A and 5B. Story courtesy Global Pipeline Monthly - www.gasandoil.com/gpm.