After a ten-month blockade, Sudan announced the lifting of the state of force majeure imposed on 16 March that blocked the export of oil from South Sudan through the Petrodar pipeline, which transports Sudanese crude oil extracted in the northeast of the country to the Sudanese port of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
In a letter dated 4 January, sent by Sudan’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mohiedienn Naiem Mohamed Saied, to his Sudanese counterpart, Puot Kang Chol, the authorities explain that the resumption of exports is possible due to improved security conditions. It was precisely the problems caused by the fierce conflict that has been going on since April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that caused the almost total blockade of Sudanese oil exports. A halt that has had serious economic consequences for the government in Juba, given that the only route for transporting crude oil – from which the state derives 80% of its GDP and 98% of its operating budget – passes through the country at war. An interest that also concerns the Sudanese military government, which collects royalties of just over 24 dollars per barrel. This is why negotiations between the two countries for a resumption of exports have intensified in recent months. In the above-mentioned missive, the Sudanese ministry points out that the unblocking was also due to new security agreements reached with South Sudan and BAPCO (Bashayer Pipeline Company), the Sudanese state-owned company operating the pipeline. The Sudanese Ministry of Petroleum therefore warned the DAR Petroleum Operating Company (DPOC) – a consortium of oil exploration and production companies led by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Malaysia’s Petronas – yesterday that oil production in Blocks 3 and 7 in the Paloch oilfields in the Upper Nile, and subsequent exports, will resume on 8 January. The target, said Puot Kang, is a total production of 90,000 barrels per day. The Petrodar pipeline stretches over 1,500 kilometres from the Melut Basin in Upper Nile to Port Sudan. At the height of the capital Khartoum it joins another pipeline, the Greater Nile Pipeline (GNP), which carries oil from the north-central Sudanese state of Unity. Credits to: NIGRIZIA – Articolo di Redazione |
Date Published:21 January 2025 Author:Alice, Officer
Article Tags: Latest news, South Sudan, Solidarity, Oil export |