KHARTOUM (Commodity Online) : War-torn North African nation Sudan failed yet again to conduct a full audit into the accuracy of their oil production data.

According to UK-based Global Witness, Sudan promised to conduct a full audit in light of significant discrepancy with figures released by the main Chinese oil company operating in the country.

World events analysis and how they affect Markets

Revenues from some oilfields published by Sudan’s Ministry of Finance were lower than revenues for the same oilfields published by operator China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Global Witness alleged.

Global Witness has discovered that oil production figures published by CNPC for 2009 for the blocks it operates in Sudan’s Upper Nile State are 12% bigger than those published by the Sudanese government.

"The difference in question - 12 million barrels of oil - is significant. The oil is worth $370 million and is enough to power a city in the US the size of San Francisco for a year," said Global Witness in a report.

Under the 2005 peace accord, both North and South of Sudan agreed to share the country’s oil wealth, with the south receiving half the state revenues from the oil drilled from its territory.

Sudan currently produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day and hoping to expand productivity to 600,000.

Global Witness said it has also discovered that the pipeline fees stated by the Sudanese government do not match those stated by the Central Bank of Sudan in 2005, 2006 and 2008.

In response to an inquiry from Global Witness, the Ministry of Finance said that that they are using two different methods of accounting meaning they cannot be compared. In 2006

Next year South Sudan will decide in a referendum vote whether they want to remain part of a united Sudan or establish their own state.

About 75 per cent of Sudan’s proven reserves of 6.3bn barrels are in the south but the pipeline that carries the oil to export terminals and refineries runs through the north.

The south needs Khartoum’s co-operation to sell its oil; the north needs revenues from its neighbor’s resources.