(Ecofin Agency) - The government of Sudan has announced it recently had talks with china over financial and technical arrangements for implementing a plan to enlarge the country’s largest refinery. Sudantribune reports

The refinery, situated 70 klm north of the country’s capital, was created as a 50-50 partnership between the Sudanese Oil Ministry and the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC).

According to Mahmoud Abdel-Rahman, the minister of state at the Ministry of Oil, enlarging the refinery is key to increasing production capacity as well as meeting high demands for petroleum products by putting their concentration on gasoline and natural gas. He also pointed out that it could aid the formation and development of petrochemical industries and coal production for use in generating electricity.

The refinery management meeting, which was held in Beijing, created working groups from the Sudanese and Chinese side to deliberate on the financial and technical provisions made for the expansion.

Khartoum refinery started operation in May 2000 with a capacity of 50,000 bbl/d and it’s still working towards boosting it up to 200,000.