Sudan earns $357 million in oil revenue for October

December 5, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan has generated 357.36 million US dollars in oil revenues for the month of October, the Ministry of Finance and National Economy revealed on Sunday.

The under-secretary at the ministry, Mustafa Hawli, said that the share of the semi-autonomous region of South Sudan in oil revenues for October is $140.56 million while that of the national government in Khartoum is $209.41 million.

Hawli, who was quoted by Sudan’s official news agency SUNA, further revealed that South Sudan’s share includes $97.49 million in net oil export proceeds and $43.07 million of oil sold to local refineries.

The share of oil producing states which amounted to $3.02 million, the official said, but did not provide a breakdown for the Upper Nile State, Unity state and South Kordofan.

According to the national wealth sharing protocol, signed on 7 January 2004 by the government of the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), at least 2% of the oil revenue is allocated to the oil-producing states in proportion to their output.

North and south Sudan have been splitting proceeds of crude oil in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which in 2005 ended decades of north-south war.

Under the deal, the south is widely expected to vote to become a fully independent state in a referendum vote due to be held in January 2011.

Nearly 80 percent of Sudan’s proven daily output of 490,000 oil barrels is produced from oilfields in the south, but the pipeline that carries the oil to export terminals and refineries runs through the north.

This week, the Sudanese government that the North is expected to boost its production of oil to 200,000 barrels per day within 3-5 years which partially offset the loss in revenue from oil produced in the South after the likely secession.

According to Hawli, the amount of direct and indirect transfers of oil revenues to the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) had reached $113.77 million during the month of October.

He pledged that the government would pay all the arrears to which GoSS is entitled by the end of December.

Meanwhile, the national minister of oil Dr Lual Deng said during a workshop in Khartoum on 4 December that his ministry was keen to eliminate doubts of the GoSS regarding the figures of produced oil by joining the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Initiated in 2002, EITIS is a coalition of governments and civil society groups aiming to increase transparency in resource-rich countries through verifying and publishing government revenues from natural resources, including oil, minerals and gas.

(ST)