New Delhi, Feb 25: The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has floated an international tender for engineering, procurement and construction of a 741-km petroleum product pipeline in Sudan. Bids from companies and consortiums are due by February 27, company sources said. The 12-inch pipeline will evacuate gas oil and gasoline from the 50,000 barrels per day Khartoum refinery to Port Sudan. Pipeline throughput is expected to be 826,000 tonnes per year (about 18,330 barrels per day) in Phase I and 2.54 million tonnes per year in Phase II. The capacity of the Khartoum refinery, equally owned by the Sudanese government and China National Petroleum Corp, is currently being expanded to 90,000 barrels per day. Sources said the EPC contract is likely to be awarded by March 10 and the pipeline is expected to be ready for operations in 14 months. Bureau Report