“A Sudanese Ministerial delegation comprising H.E. Dr. Awad Ahmed Mohammed Elgaz, Assistant to the President of the Republic of the Sudan; H.E. Azhari Abdalgadir Abdalla Abdalgadir, Minister of Petroleum; H.E. Mr. Osama Faisal Elsayed Ali, State Minister of Foreign Affairs; H.E. Mr.Tarig Hassan Ali Shalabi, State Minister of Finance; H.E. Mr. Sirajuddin Hamid Yousif, Ambassador of the Republic of the Sudan to India, and other Sudanese officials visited ONGC Videsh Corporate Office at New Delhi on August 7, 2018 and held discussions with ONGC Videsh officials led by Shri Narendra K Verma, Managing Director and CEO.

The Ministerial delegation informed that the Government of Sudan is making sincere efforts to mitigate the issue of default on payment dues to ONGC Videsh. It was informed that the Government of Sudan is hopeful that its economic situation shall be improving henceforth with the recent agreement it reached with the Government of South Sudan on resumption of crude oil transportation from South Sudan territory through the Heglig-Port Sudan pipeline. The visiting delegation requested ONGC Videsh to withdraw the Arbitration process instituted against the Government of Sudan.

ONGC Videsh expressed its happiness for the positive response from Sudan and stated that it is always ready to work with Sudan to find a workable solution to clear the pending dues in a time bound manner. It was further informed by ONGC Videsh that keeping the legal intricacies in view, the arbitration process can continue while both sides work together on suitable mechanism of resolving the issues. On the request of the visiting delegation, ONGC Videsh agreed to depute a team of senior level officials to Sudan for initiating techno-commercial discussions afresh so as to workout way forward for settlement of past dues. Subsequently, the ONGC Videsh team arrived at Khartoum on August 13, 2018 and discussions with the Sudanese side are presently ongoing”.