South Sudan plans to build underwater oil pipeline along the Nile to export oil from ports in Kenya and Djibouti.
Underwater River Nile Oil Pipeline?
South Sudan, locked in a row over oil transit fees with neighbour Sudan, said on Wednesday it plans to build a temporary underwater oil pipeline along the Nile as part of a project to deliver crude for export from ports in Kenya and Djibouti.
The pipeline would extend from oilfields to the capital Juba where the crude would be transferred to trucks and taken on to Kenya and Djibouti, South Sudan’s Minister of Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau told Reuters by telephone.
Some 30,000 barrels of crude would be delivered to ports under the project, which could be completed by the end of the year, he said. – Reuters
http://www.iol.co.za/business/international/south-sudan-plans-pipe-for-oil-exports-1.1251138
South Sudan plans underwater pipe for oil exports
By Hereward Holland
(Reuters) – South Sudan, locked in a row over oil transit fees with neighbour Sudan, said on Wednesday it plans to build a temporary underwater oil pipeline along the Nile as part of a project to deliver crude for export from ports in Kenya and Djibouti.
The pipeline would extend from oilfields to the capital Juba where the crude would be transferred to trucks and taken on to Kenya and Djibouti, South Sudan’s Minister of Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau told Reuters by telephone.
Oil provides about 98 percent of South Sudan’s income and is vital to the impoverished country as it tries to develop infrastructure and institutions devastated by a war that killed an estimated 2 million people.
South Sudan seceded last July under a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war with Khartoum. But peace remains uneasy at best, with the north and south deadlocked over oil transit fees that have contributed to recent high global oil prices.
Some 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude would be delivered to ports under the project, which could be completed by the end of the year, Dau said.
“The temporary pipeline will be established under the water of the Nile from Tharjath (oilfield) up to Juba,” he said.
The landlocked new nation took control of about three quarters of the unified country’s oil output of roughly 500,000 bpd, but it needs to export its crude through northern pipelines to the Red Sea port of Port Sudan.
The two nations separated without agreeing how much the south should pay to use oil facilities in the north.
ALTERNATIVES
South Sudan, now seeking alternative routes to export its oil, plans to truck crude from oil blocks seven and three in Upper Nile state through Ethiopia to port at Djibouti, Dau said.
The crude will flow through the plastic pipeline from Unity State to Juba, and be trucked the rest of the way via Uganda or straight through Kenya to the port of Mombasa, he added.
“We hope that within this year we will start to export. It depends on the preparation of the road and the availability of these facilities,” Dau said.
South Sudan has signed agreements to build new pipelines through Kenya and Ethiopia that they hope to complete within 18 months, although analysts doubt the economic viability of the schemes.
A Norwegian company approached the south for the temporary pipeline project but no deal has yet been signed, Dau said without providing further details.
South Sudan’s government in Juba shut down its 350,000 bpd oil production in January after the north seized more than $800 million of the south’s oil and built a tie-in pipeline to divert it through refineries in Khartoum.
The two countries last month signed a pact agreeing to “respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, rejection of the use of force, equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.”
Then last week South Sudan accused Sudan of bombing an oil well. Sudan denied responsibility. The two governments met in Ethiopia on Tuesday to try to break the deadlock over oil transit fees.
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE82606L20120307?sp=true
| Land dispute leaves over five people dead in South Sudan’s capital, Juba Sudan Tribune The incident pushed President Salva Kiir to stop the violence and maintain security and calm in theSouth Sudan’s capital. The clashes erupted for two days on Sunday and Monday between members of the Bari community and non-Bari, particularly the Dinka … |
| Iowan serves medical needs of women in South Sudan DesMoinesRegister.com She signed up with the organization Doctors Without Borders, and was soon off to Ethiopia — and later South Sudan, where she is now on her third mission. Doctors Without Borders places some 5000 foreigners (430 were American last year) in areas … |
||
|
| SOUTH SUDAN: Restoring a new country’s vision IRINnews.org JUBA, 7 March 2012 (IRIN) – Newly independent South Sudan has some of the highest blindness rates in the world. Endemic diseases that have been stamped out in other post-conflict countries are rife, and the only fully functioning eye centre is in the … |
| Sudanese mourn the death of US Congressman Payne Sudan Tribune The news of Payne’s death drew an outpour of sadness from Sudanese particularly in the south and Darfur. “With greatest sadness and sorrow – my tears are rolling down my cheeks to have learnt of the death of a true honorable US politician; … |
| Tense Sudan, South Sudan Talks Enter 2nd Day Voice of America March 07, 2012 Tense Sudan, South Sudan Talks Enter 2nd Day VOA News Talks to resolve tension between Sudan and South Sudan have entered a second day, after negotiations ended in shouting Tuesday. A VOA correspondent at the scene in Ethiopia’s capital, … |
||
| Tense Sudan, South Sudan Talks Enter 2nd Day Voice of America (blog) Talks to resolve tension between Sudan and South Sudan have entered a second day, after negotiations ended in shouting Tuesday. A VOA correspondent at the scene, in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, reports the talks are in a delicate stage as the sides … |
||
|
||
| IsraAID opens training program in South Sudan Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli nongovernmental organization IsraAID opened a training program to deal with gender-based violence for social workers in the fledgling country of South Sudan. Helen Murshalli, the South Sudanese minister of social … |
||
| Concern Over Renewed Clashes Along South Sudan Border Newsroom America By Newsroom America Staff at 12:10 pm Eastern (Newsroom America) — The Security Council has expressed grave concern about reports of renewed cross-border violence between Sudan and South Sudan, and called for a ceasefire in the area to end the … |
||
| Nightmare in the Nuba Mountains: Echoes of Darfur Huffington Post I recently returned from several days in South Sudan — specifically Yida refugee camp, where I encountered bone-chilling stories of the nightmare unfolding in the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states just north of the border in Sudan. |
About Post Author
