
The Muglad Basin is a large
rift basin in
Northern Africa. The basin is situated within southern
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
and
South Sudan
South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...
, and it covers an area of approximately across the two nations. It contains a number of
hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...
accumulations of various sizes, the largest of which are the
Heglig and
Unity oil fields. During the 1960s and 1970s,
Chevron made the first oil discoveries in the basin near the towns of
Bentiu,
Malakal, and
Muglad. Taken together, the Muglad and
Melut rift basins account for the majority of Sudan's known oil reserves.
The oil fields of the Muglad Basin are connected to
Port Sudan on the
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
by the
Greater Nile Oil Pipeline which begins at the
Unity oil field. Oil extracted in Muglad is known as "Nile Blend" crude. It is refined at Khartoum for export and domestic consumption. Further
oil exploration in the Muglad Basin commenced in February 2008.
[IHS 2008]
'WNPOC starts Muglad Basin drilling campaign - Sudan'
''www.ihs.com'', 21 February. Retrieved on 5 March 2008.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
Aulacogens
Geology of Sudan
Geology of South Sudan
Oil fields of Sudan
Sedimentary basins of Africa
{{plate-tectonics-stub