The deal, expected to be signed within the coming months, will use 300 million dollars to expand the Khartoum Refinery from 50,000 barrels per day to 90,000.

CNPC and Sudan first established the 50-50 joint venture in 1997.

The rest of the cash investment is earmarked for a 750 kilometer-long pipeline linking block six in southern Sudan's Kordofan oilfield with the refinery and Port Sudan, where it will then connect with export markets.

Cooperative ventures in Sudan's oil sector have opened up investment opportunities in other sectors of the country such as infrastructure projects.

China's largest oil producer has other oil interests in Africa.

In early April, China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp, a unit of CPNC, secured a 350 million-dollar oil refinery deal in Algeria.

(CRI News May 20, 2003)