South Sudan may soon resume exporting crude oil through Sudan

South Sudan and Sudan discussed the resumption of South Sudanese crude oil exports through a port in Sudan and noted progress after months of blocking South Sudanese crude oil flows due to a ruptured pipeline in war-torn Sudan .

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir met with Sudan’s Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and discussed the resumption of oil exports through Sudan after four months of oil infrastructure work, the president’s office announced on Monday in a communicated.

“Foreign Affairs Minister Ramadan Abdalla Mohammed Goc has confirmed that Sudanese engineers have made the necessary technical preparations to resume oil production,” the president’s office added.

Engineers from South Sudan are expected to visit Sudan in the coming weeks to take stock of progress and assess whether the pipeline and associated infrastructure are ready to resume crude oil flows from South Sudan, the minister added.

South Sudan’s oil exports have fallen since the start of the year. The country is struggling to get money into its budget because its oil exports, on which it depends for 90 percent of state revenue, are blocked by a broken pipeline in neighboring Sudan, which is currently the only outlet for South Sudan to sell the crude oil.

In March, Sudan declared force majeure on crude oil exports from its landlocked neighbor, South Sudan, following a major rupture of a pipeline carrying crude from South Sudan to a Sudanese port in a military zone activate.

Sudan’s most recent conflict erupted last April when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, took up arms against the Sudanese army in the capital Khartoum.

Many of South Sudan’s oil fields cannot send their oil north through the Sudan pipeline, and revenues for South Sudan are falling.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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