South Sudan says it is ready to restart pumping oil through Sudan By Reuters

JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan and Sudan have made progress toward restarting South Sudan’s pump through a pipeline leading to a port in its neighbor, South Sudan’s finance minister and the president’s office said.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Exports are an important source of income for South Sudan, and Sudan takes a portion of the oil as a transit fee.

In March, Sudanese officials said the main pipeline carrying oil from South Sudan through Sudan for export had suffered shutdowns since a month earlier due to problems related to a war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces.

KEY QUOTE

“Sudanese engineers have made the necessary technical preparations to resume oil production,” South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s office said in a statement late Monday after a meeting between Kiir and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Juba.

“Engineers from South Sudan are expected to visit Sudan in the coming weeks to familiarize themselves with the preparation of the facilities so they can start production.”

“There has been a discovery and it will become public very soon,” South Sudan’s finance minister Marial Dongrin Ater told a news conference late Monday.

CONTEXT

South Sudan’s economy has been under pressure in recent years amid communal violence, dwindling crude oil export earnings since the 2013-2018 civil war and, more recently, disruptions to exports due to war in neighboring Sudan.

BY NUMBERS

South Sudan sent about 150,000 barrels per day of crude through Sudan for export, according to a formula established when South Sudan gained independence from Khartoum in 2011, taking most of its oil production with it.

At its peak before the civil war, South Sudan’s crude oil production was 350,000 to 400,000 barrels per day.