South Sudan has sold 22mln barrels of oil, worth $2.14 billion
(AFP) –
JUBA — South Sudan has sold 22 million barrels of oil to international buyers through the north’s Port Sudan export terminal since independence, at an estimated value of $2.14 billion, the oil ministry said.
The announcement, made late on Wednesday, comes in spite of a bitter unresolved row between Khartoum and Juba about the fees the south owes for using the north’s oil infrastructure.
“Since achieving independence on July 9, 2011, the ministry of petroleum and mining… has contracted the sale of 22 million barrels for export crude oil,” the ministry said in a statement.
“This volume covers the July through October 2011 period and is transiting by ship through Port Sudan marine terminal to international buyers located in Asia and Europe.”
“The ministry estimates the total value of exports for this period at $2.14 billion (1.6 billion euros), based on current market prices,” it added.
South Sudan, which formally split from the north on July 9, produces three-quarters of Sudan’s total crude output of around 470,000 barrels per day.
It is one of the poorest countries in the world, after decades of war with the north that left the resource-rich country in ruins. Oil accounts for more than 95 percent of its total revenues.
But negotiations on how to divide the industry are in limbo, with the two sides far apart on what they consider to be an acceptable arrangement.
The Khartoum government is desperately short of hard currency, and wants to charge the south $32 per barrel for the use of its oil infrastructure, including pipelines, refinery and export facilities.
Juba has rejected this charge, calling it “daylight robbery,” and has argued that 41 cents per barrel, which Cameroon charges Chad for the use of its pipeline, is a fair international standard.
On Wednesday, the US nominee for ambassador to South Sudan called on north and south to reach an oil-sharing deal quickly to avert “economic stresses.”
“Right now both sides are allowing the oil to continue to flow and to be exported but, without something solid pretty quickly, both countries will really face some serious economic stresses,” Susan Page told a US Senate confirmation hearing.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir was due to visit Khartoum this week, for the first time since southern independence, to discuss all the key outstanding issues with his northern counterpart, Omar al-Bashir, including oil and borders.
But the visit has been repeatedly postponed.
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New African oil producer South Sudan expects US$2.14 billion from the sale of crude since its independence in July, the petroleum ministry said on Wednesday.
South Sudan took 75 per cent of Sudan’s oil production of 500,000 barrels a day when it became Africa’s newest nation after an independence vote.
South Sudan has contracted the sale of 22 million barrels of crude oil for the July-October period to buyers in Asia and Europe, the ministry said in a statement. The oil is shipped through the northern Sudanese oil port of Port Sudan.
South Sudan needs to export its crude through Port Sudan because it has no sea access and owns no pipeline. It will have to pay Khartoum a pipeline transit fee over which both sides have reached no agreement yet. Analysts expect South Sudan to pay less than the 50-50 split agreed so far with Khartoum.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/23468/Business/Economy/South-Sudan-contracts-oil-sales-worth–billion.aspx
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