Sudan Halts South Sudan Govt’s Oil Exports

Sudan has decided to halt the oil exports of South Sudan’s government because the two have yet to agree on a transit fee, Sudan’s acting oil minister Ali Ahmed Osman has said.

The new nation, Southern Sudan exports its oil through its neighbour.

The government took the decision on November 17 according to Osman, adding that the pipeline was still running and international companies would not be affected.

“We stopped only the share of the government of South Sudan,” he said,

pointing  out that Sudan estimated South Sudan owed it around 727 million dollars

for arrears between July 9 and the end of October.

South Sudan split off from Sudan to become the world’s newest nation on July 9, taking with it about 75 per cent of the former country’s roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil output.

South Sudan still depends on Sudan’s oil infrastructure, including a pipeline running north to a Red Sea port, to export its crude. The two have yet to work out how much South Sudan should pay as a transit fee.

Oil is the lifeblood of both countries’ economies, and accounts for some 98 per cent of South Sudan’s government revenues.

Osman said Sudan had been allowing South Sudan to continue exporting on the expectation that the transit fees would be paid in arrears, but they had  already gone more than four months without an agreement.