Gulf Loses Patience With Sudan
As protests against the 30-year regime of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir enter a third month the reluctance of traditional Gulf allies to provide financial backing leaves him increasingly isolated. MEES, 22 February 2019 More than two months since protests began on 19 December against an increase in the price of bread and other basic commodities, [...]
Sudan, South Sudan Claim Oil Production Boon, But How Much?
South Sudan’s oil output is up 40% in the past year to 165,000 b/d as a cooperation agreement with Sudan comes to fruition, Juba claims. The figures may be inflated, but any increase in revenue is a welcome boost to two struggling economies. MEES, 8 February 2019 A resumption of production from fields in former [...]
South Sudan: China Oil displaces Unipec in Dar Blend marketing
African Energy, 26 July 2018 China Oil has displaced Unipec as the dominant marketer of South Sudan’s Dar Blend crude, lifting cargoes in all but two months of 2018. China Oil has been contracted to lift 9.2m bbls of crude so far this year, almost a third of the country’s 29.6m-bbl production, and 43% of [...]
South Sudan signals end to crude cargoes
African Energy, 26 July 2018 In lifting contracts agreed by Juba in early July for crude shipments in August, there is no cargo for Sudan Petroleum Corporation, signalling an end to the diversion of oil cargoes to Khartoum to pay South Sudan’s oil debts. Energy minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth said in February that the transfers [...]
South Sudan Coffers Empty Amid Crippling Crude ‘Diversions’ To Khartoum
South Sudan has diverted crude worth $1.6bn to Sudan in the past three years to pay off arrears in transit and compensation levies. Despite claims to the contrary there appears to be no end in sight to such transfers. MEES, 11 May 2018 More than four years into a civil war that seems as impervious [...]
US imposes South Sudan oil sanctions
African Energy, 5 April 2018 The US government has imposed licensing restrictions on South Sudan’s Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of Mining, state-owned Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet) and 12 other oil-related organisations. The restrictions were issued on 21 March by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the US Department of Commerce “as part of [...]
Sudan-South Sudan relations: Now for (yet another) hard part
Focus turns to political challenges as Sudan and South Sudan reach deal on oil 9 September 2013 Now that Khartoum has agreed to drop its threat to prevent South Sudanese oil exports via its pipeline infrastructure, a series of political challenges remain if the two countries are to continue to co-operate on the energy sector [...]
Sudan-South Sudan oil deal has its limits
17th April 2013 Foreign Policy – The Middle East Channel Sudan and South Sudan reached a deal in the early hours of March 12, after a week of negotiations in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, which should spark the beginning of exports of South Sudanese oil from Sudan’s Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast, for [...]
Cereal price rises threaten civil unrest
The Middle East must ensure food supply amid spiking global prices or risk potential civil unrest The current drought-induced surge in global food prices is causing disquiet in the Middle East and North Africa. Memories do not need to be very long to recall that when protesters took to the streets of cities across the [...]
Six months after South Sudan gained independence, the same challenges remain
On 9th January, South Sudan will celebrate six months of independence form the north. But the problems faced by the new country are still mounting In early 2011 I devoted two months to covering the referendum on the independence of South Sudan from the north and the government’s efforts to set up the apparatus for [...]
Old tensions fail to disappear in Sudan
As Sudan splits, the issues that caused the bloody civil war will not be easily consigned to history If anybody thought that the success of the January referendum on the secession of South Sudan from the north meant that the hard work was over, recent events will have forced them to reassess. The backdrop to [...]
Sudan prepares for split
Co-operation between the North and the South will be key to economic development. But disputes over oil resources and debt will hamper progress Forty years of civil war in the past half century have meant Sudan has rarely enjoyed the political stability that is vital for economic development. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in [...]