ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is talking to China National Petroleum Corporation, the Chinese national oil company, for a stake in the recently discovered Mulut Basin oilfield in Sudan.

"OVL is exploring a farm-in opportunity in the oil field that is expected to produce 8 million tonnes of crude annually from 2005," industry sources said in New Delhi on Friday.

CNPC has a 41 per cent stake in the field with Gulf Petroleum and two Sudanese firms holding the rest.

"The Indian firm is looking at a minority stake in the field," they said.

OVL and CNPC are already partners in the 260,000 barrels per day (13 million tonnes annual crude output) Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company in Sudan.

Oil production from GNPOC, located on a 12-million-acre concession in south central Sudan, will soon rise to 300,000 barrels per day (15 million tonnes), sources said, adding that further investment in the development of the field could result in production of 400,000 barrels per day (20 million tonnes).

Meanwhile, Sudan's government has offered "an exclusive basin" to OVL that is supposedly rich in oil. OVL has also been offered a contract to lay a 700-kilometre product pipeline from the Khartoum refinery to Port of Sudan.

Besides, Sudan has also invited OVL to help expand the capacity of a refinery in the country from 34,000 barrels per day to 71,000 barrels per day.