The coming referendum is concentrating minds - Sudanese, Chinese
and Western - on how the oil wealth will be shared
China's oil interests in Sudan will come under heavy scrutiny
again as Khartoum and Juba start negotiations on sharing oil revenues
after the independence referendum due in January 2011. Backed
by Darfur lobbyists and divestiture campaigners, the United
States government has put pressure on US-based Chinese
companies to respect the sanctions in place against the Sudan
government since 1997. In June, Washington told the US-based PetroChina
subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
that it would not be able to process Sudanese crude imports at
its new 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery at Qinzhou. The refinery
began receiving its first test cargoes, from an undisclosed location,
in late 2009....
(This article contains approximately 760 words)
