US, China Urges South Sudan, Sudan to Settle Oil Dispute Peacefully.
WASHINGTON — The United States urged Sudan and South Sudan to redouble efforts to resolve a crisis over fees for oil transfers and said it supported a proposal by African Union mediators.
The statement by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland came a day after South Sudan ordered a shutdown of its oil production because Sudan has seized oil transiting its territory.
She said Washington supports the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel’s roadmap for an agreement to resolve the crisis and set a timeline for a final oil and financial agreement between the two countries.
“We further urge the parties to redouble their efforts to reach an agreement on permanent oil and financial arrangements as the impending crisis threatens not only the flow of oil but also long term damage to infrastructure,” she said.
“Therefore an agreement that addresses the current crisis has become necessary and is in the interests of both countries,” Nuland said.
She said resumption of normal oil shipments was critical to stabilize the economies of both countries.
The South split from Sudan in July, taking with it 75 percent of the country’s oil production of 470,000 barrels per day, but despite its oil wealth, the new state of South Sudan lacks the infrastructure to refine and export oil.
Crucial facilities including a pipeline and Red Sea export terminal remain in Sudan, leaving the two states arguing over how much the south should pay to use the infrastructure.
Sudanese authorities recently stopped two ships loaded with 650,000 barrels of South Sudanese oil from leaving the export terminal because they did not pay the port fees, according to Khartoum’s foreign ministry.
Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.
China Urges Calm Talk for Sudan, South Sudan
By SIMON HALL
BEIJING—China on Saturday urged the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to remain calm and restrained and resolve their differences over oil exports through “negotiation at an early date.”
“Oil is the economic lifeline shared by Sudan and South Sudan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Weimin said in remarks posted on the ministry’s website, adding that the Beijing government “hopes that the two governments will fulfill their commitment to protecting the legal rights of Chinese enterprises and those of other partners.”
The ministry noted that on Friday the government of South Sudan had ordered the gradual halt of all oil production due to a disagreement with Sudan over fees for moving South Sudan’s oil via Sudan’s pipelines and harbors.
“We urge the two sides to remain calm and restrained, avoid taking any extreme action and continue working together with mediation by the African Union and other parties to resolve their dispute through negotiation at an early date and to benefit the two countries and their peoples,” Mr. Liu said.
South Sudan, which broke away from Sudan and became an independent country in July 2011 after decades of civil war, has accused Sudan of disrupting its oil exports and of stealing some of its oil. The two countries produce about 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, approximately 75% of it South Sudan’s.
State-owned China National Petroleum Corp., India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas, account for around 90% of the combined oil production in the two countries. The Chinese company is the largest foreign investor in the two countries’ energy sectors, and China takes about half of their oil exports.
Official customs data show China’s imports of oil from the two have ranged between 200,000 barrels and 280,000 barrels a day in recent months. The 2010 average was 253,000 barrels.
On Tuesday, South Sudan accused Sudan of preventing the export of its oil, which had been piped to Port Sudan in the north, and of loading some of it onto Sudanese-flagged ships.
Write to Simon Hall at simon.hall@dowjones.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577174591034411010.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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