“Don’t panic” Machar tells oil workers from North Sudan

December 12, 2010 (JUBA) – Northern Sudanese working in the oil-producing south should not panic as the south’s referendum on independence approaches region Vice President, Riek Machar has told oil workers on December 6.

Northerners working at various oilfields in the South have reported fears about the outcome of the referendum scheduled to take place three weeks from now on 9 January 2010. Some have opted to resign from work and move north while others have taken sick leave a travelled to northern Sudan.

There has also been a large migration of Southern Sudanese from the capital Khartoum and other areas of the north as their safety and citizenship status in the north remains unclear.

Machar assured the northern Sudanese employees working at Petrodar Operating Company in Melut County in Upper Nile state of his government’s policy to make sure that the oil operations continue uninterrupted irrespective of the referendum result.

He said the oil operations benefit both north and south economically, explaining that any slightest interruption for even a day or two can have negative impact on the economies of both regions.

Machar further assured that the Government of Southern Sudan has an obligation to protect economic institutions in Southern Sudan including oil company installations and employees working in the oilfields such as in Upper Nile and Unity states, situated on the south’s border with the north.

The Vice President who also spent two days at Falluj oilfield met with the senior management of the Petrodar Operating Company and told them to extend services such as water, electricity and roads to the populations of Melut County.

In a public rally in Melut town Machar advised the citizens of the area to build good relations with the employees working at the oilfields while claiming their right to provision of services in a peaceful manner.

He said the people of Melut had the right to benefit from the oil produced and operated in their land. Machar also briefed them on the ongoing discussions between the two governments to resolve the issue.

An agreement was later on reached at Falluj oilfield between the Government of Southern Sudan and the national government in Khartoum on the security of the employees and signed by their Sudanese defense minister and his southern counterpart in the presence of Machar and the Vice President of the Republic, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha.

The joint meeting was also attended by national and southern the interior ministers as well as ministers of petroleum in Khartoum, Lual Achuek and minister of Energy and Mining, Garang Ding.

The agreement also called on the Petrodar Operating Company to deliver services to the people in the area and train qualified Southern Sudanese to be employed in the oil sector.

Southern Sudan’s budget is almost solely dependent on oil revenues produced in the South. Only 2% of the southern government’s budget does not come from the regions oil revenues, which are split 50-50 between the north and south as part the same peace deal that established the upcoming secession referendum.

Whether this split continues in the event that the south separates from the north is one of the post-referendum issues being debated between the signatories to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The only oil refineries pipeline runs through northern Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

An agreement on future oil revenues may include the north receiving a percentage of the revenue and or fees for the oil being exported and refined through the north.

Oil is one of many issues under negotiation between the Khartoum government and the South Sudan’s former rebels the SPLM, who have governed the south since the 2005 peace deal.

Other outstanding post-referendum issues include, debt, national assets, water, citizenship, demarcating the border and implementing a separate referendum in the border region of Abyei to determine whether it will join, what most believe, will be a newly-independent south.

(ST)