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The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed (again) to the establishment of a demilitarised buffer zone critical to the resumption of oil exports, but the details have yet to be elaborated. Negotiations in Addis Ababa on 4-5 January reached some conclusions but failed to resolve some critical issues, including the future of Abyei
Having passed the much-anticipated Petroleum Act 2012, and with the expectation that it will soon pass the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill 2012, South Sudan’s National Legislative Assembly is putting in place the key legislation to regulate the oil industry and revenue flows. This is much to be welcomed, advocacy group Global Witness said on 29 November as it unveiled a report on oil transparency in the new republic. The “legislation contains strong public reporting, revenue management and contract allocation requirements,” Global Witness campaigner Dana Wilkins said.
Negotiations on avoiding further conflict continue, following the Agreement on Oil and Related Economic Matters reached by the two Sudans on 27 September.
Juba is one of five capitals to get new Japanese embassies in the 2013 fiscal year (to end-March), in a move intended to raise Tokyo’s profile after a period when China is seen to have made advances, especially in Africa
There is now hope for economic and military stability in both countries, but ongoing disputes over border issues and the status of Sudapet could still thwart co-operation, writes Hugh Boylan.
The new arrangement to bring US major ExxonMobil into the exploration of Block B ends speculation that Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company might take an interest in the acreage.
Of all the assorted regional infrastructure projects jostling for supremacy in East Africa, the growing credibility of the Lamu Corridor project raises the possibility of a new East African power axis of Kenya and an emergent Ethiopia.
As Sudan and South Sudan reach a deal to resume oil exports, details have emerged of plans to divide Total’s Block B into three and bring in ExxonMobil as a partner, writes Richard Nield in Juba
The 118,000km2 Block B straddles eight of South Sudan’s ten states. Located mainly in Jonglei State, it also extends into Warrap, Lakes, Unity, Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria.
Amid uncertainty over the status of oil blocks straddling the border between Sudan and South Sudan, Canadian-Pakistani businessman Lutfur Khan, whose involvement in Sudan’s oil industry goes back to the 1990s, has found a partner to help finance development of three oil fields in northern Block 7.
Oil trader Vitol is in the final stages of negotiating a deal with the government of South Sudan to build a new 10,000 b/d refinery on the Thar Jath field in Unity State, local sources told African Energy
Part of the Muglad Basin, the 5A concession extends across central Unity State, into Warrap State to the west and Jonglei State to the east. The 54km2 Thar Jath field has estimated reserves of 250m bbls, according to a US Geological Survey report in 2009.
If Juba and Khartoum can set aside their differences and pave the way for a resumption of oil exports from South Sudan via the north, it will still be some considerable time before previous production levels are attained.
South Sudan is proud of its ability to survive so far without oil income, but the strategy is by no means sustainable and the assumptions about non-oil revenues in the government’s new austerity budget may not be realised, writes Richard Nield, recently in Juba
Even as negotiations continue towards the restarting of oil exports via Sudan, South Sudan is pushing ahead with plans to build alternative routes to export its oil, say senior government officials. The Juba government is also planning to build a refinery, launch a licensing round, and break up oil concessions awarded by Khartoum prior to independence, writes Richard Nield, recently in Juba
