Sudan has not stopped South Sudan oil exports -official

Sudan has not stopped South Sudan’s oil exports and does not intend to, a Sudanese official said on Wednesday, two days after the acting oil minister said Sudan had halted South Sudanese government exports over a transit fee dispute.

South Sudan split off into the world’s newest nation on July 9, taking about three-quarters of the formerly united country’s roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil production with it.

Oil is vital to both economies, but the two sides have not yet agreed on how much South Sudan – which must send its oil through pipelines in Sudan to a Red Sea port – should pay as a transit fee.

On Monday, Sudan’s acting oil minister, Ali Ahmed Osman, said his country had decided to halt South Sudan’s oil exports – roughly 200,000 barrels per day – until the two sides came to an agreement.

Sabir Mohamed Hassan, Sudan’s co-chair of negotiations on economic issues, appeared to reverse that statement on Wednesday.

“Exports will continue. We will not stop the flow of oil exports,” he told reporters in Addis Ababa, where officials from both sides are meeting for talks.

South Sudanse officials said on Monday two shipments had been held up or would be held up because of the decision, a 600,000 barrel shipment sold to China’s Unipec and a 1 million barrel shipment sold to Vitol.

Asked whether those shipments had loaded, Hassan said: “Most probably that amount is the amount we took in lieu of charges accumulated against the government of Sudan.”

Osman, Sudan’s acting oil minister, said on Monday South Sudan already owed Sudan some $727 million in arrears.

Reuters.