Ethiopia renews gasoline imports from Sudan

January 16, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia reached a one-year agreement with Sudan to resume gasoline imports from its western neighbor, the Addis Ababa-based Fortune said.

The deal was negotaied on Thursday January 10 during the visit of the Sudanese minister of Energy and Mining Awad al-Jaz to Addis Ababa where he also discussed the implementation of a joint project to provide Sudan with 100 MW electric power.

“We have reached an agreement after finishing details left unsettled after the previous accord expired,” said Alemayehu Tegenu, Ethiopia’s mining and energy minister.

Ethiopia will pay for the gasoline with agricultural products, Fortune said. Ethiopia imports about 80 percent of its gasoline requirements from Sudan.

Last December, Ethiopia said it wouldn’t renew a five-year oil-import deal signed in 2002 because of U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on Sudan. The sanctions, imposed because of Sudan’s support of militias in Darfur, prevented the transfer of Ethiopian payments to Sudan.

(ST)