China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), one of the largest oil producers in China, attempted to refute western media's claims that the company has adopted predatory and neocolonial development patterns in Sudan in its "2009 Corporate Social Responsibility Report" released in Beijing on May 19.

The company also released another report on their business development situation in Sudan. CNPC wrote in the business development report that China and Sudan started close cooperation in oil development in 1995 shortly after the then Sudanese President's visit to China.

After 15 years of cooperation with China, Sudan has successfully evolved from an oil importer into an exporter and has built a modern oil industry system. Because of this, Sudan has become one of the few African countries that can maintain rapid economic growth and at the end of 2009, Sudanese workers constituted more than 95 percent of the total staff at CNPC's oil projects in Sudan and around 75 percent of the petroleum engineering technical service staff.CNPC had provided altogether more than 80,000 Sudanese with jobs.

Sudanese Ambassador to China Mirghani Mohamed Salih said that CNPC has proved to be a reliable partner, and Sudan has decided to further strengthen cooperation based on mutual benefit.    (Extracted By Sean)