S Sudan to resume oil production by May

REUTERS

CAIRO

SOUTH Sudan plans to resume oil production of up to 200,000 barrels a day initially and the first export cargo should reach Sudan’s terminal at Port Sudan at the end of May, Sudan’s state news agency SUNA said.

After months of negotiations both African countries agreed earlier this month to resume cross-border oil flows after tensions between them eased.

Landlocked South Sudan, which shut down its entire output of 350,000 bpd in a row with Khartoum over oil fees last year, needs to export its oil through Sudanese pipelines and the port of Port Sudan. Both countries agreed for the South to resume oil production with an initial output of between 150,000 bpd and 200,000 bpd from mid-April, SUNA said late on Friday, quoting officials from both countries.

The first cargo would reach Port Sudan at the end of May, SUNA said, two weeks later than initially expected.

South Sudan’s oil minister said on March 14 that oil companies in the South had been ordered to restart production, which he said would take two to three weeks. Both countries depend heavily on crude exports for state revenues and use the foreign currency to import food and fuel.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 under a 2005 peace deal which ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars but both countries remain at loggerheads over ownership of disputed territories and other issues.

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