KHARTOUM: Sudan earned more than $230m in fees for the export of South Sudanese oil this year, official media reported yesterday, days before a Khartoum deadline to shut the pipelines.
“The government of South Sudan sent the fees for oil transportation to the Sudan Central Bank,” the official SUNA news agency quoted the bank’s Assistant Governor, Azhari Al Tayeb Al Faki, as saying. The documented amount is $236m, SUNA said.
That figure covers fees for transporting South Sudanese oil to the Port Sudan export terminal, as well as a package to compensate Khartoum for the loss of oil when South Sudan separated, SUNA said.
The South became independent two years ago. It split with about 75 percent of united Sudan’s oil production, leaving the country without its major source of export earnings.
Inflation soared and the Sudanese pound plummeted in value on the black market.
Oil refineries and export pipelines stayed under Sudan’s jurisdiction but the two sides could not agree on how much the South should pay for using that infrastructure.
South Sudan’s government in Juba halted oil production early last year, accusing Khartoum of theft, but pumping resumed in April after relations between the two sides appeared to be improving.
In June, Sudan accused the South of backing rebels on Sudanese soil and abruptly told oil companies they had 60 days to stop transporting the crude.
The deadline has been extended twice and is now set for September 6 while oil continues moving through the pipelines for export.
AFP
