Khartoum says South Sudan will resume oil exports in two months

April 26, 2024 (JUBA) – Sudan on Friday said export of South Sudan’s crude oil using the Jabalyn pipeline through Port Sudan will resume in two months.

The Vice President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan, Malik Agar said major efforts were being made to resume oil exports.

“Transportation of South Sudan crude oil via the Jabalyn-Port Sudan pipeline will resume in two months”, he told the U.S-sponsored Eye Radio.

A high-placed source at the Ministry of Petroleum separately told Sudan Tribune that efforts were being made to resume production and export through the Jabalyn pipeline

“You know oil is an international resource. It is not Sudan and South Sudan benefiting from it alone. You have Chinese, Russians, Malaysians, Indians, and even Americans in the mix”, said a South Sudanese diplomat with direct knowledge of the ongoing efforts to resume export.

He alleged that American companies, utilizing agents in the chain have all along been involved in the process of looking for markets for the sale of crude oil in the international markets

Agar did not divulge what the two sides and companies were doing to resume export in two months.

Observers utilizing security and diplomatic knowledge and experience have cited a deal that companies on one side with the direct involvement and permission of the government of south Sudan and Sudan on the other reached to allow the technicians access to where disruptions have occurred for repair and maintenance of some facilities and stations.

South Sudan depends on the oil it exports through Sudan which has been experiencing instability since the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started fighting each other in the middle of April 2023.

Regional and international efforts to mediate and end the conflict through a negotiated settlement have been slow, if not stalled.

(ST)