South Sudan Orders Production Shutdown in Oil Row
South Sudan has ordered the shutdown of oil production amid a deepening row with Khartoum over pipeline fees, the government said Friday.
"The government has instructed the minister of petroleum and mining to proceed with arrangements for a complete shutdown of oil production", Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin told Agence France Presse Friday.
"The council of ministers decided today that in light of the present quantities of oil being taken by Khartoum" it would halt production, he added.
The South split from Sudan in July, taking with it 75 percent of the country's oil production of 470,000 barrels per day, but despite its oil wealth the new state lacks the infrastructure to refine and export oil.
Crucial facilities including the pipeline and Red Sea export terminal remain in Sudan, leaving the two states arguing over how much the south should pay to use the infrastructure.
The former civil war enemies -- now regional neighbors -- have exchanged repeated tit-for-tat accusations in a bitter spat during dragging oil negotiations, raising tensions between the two sides.
However, Benjamin said shutting down production would not be immediate, and that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir would meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir before it was stopped.
"It is not just closed like a door key ... it cannot be less than seven days", he said of the planned shutdown. "The council has also agreed that President Kiir will meet Omar al-Bashir at the African Union in Addis Ababa on January 27."
Oil companies in South Sudan include Nile Petroleum Corporation, wholly-owned by the Juba government, and Petrodar Operating Company, which is owned mainly by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Petronas of Malaysia, Sudapet of Sudan and SINOPEC of China.
China, which relies on South Sudan for nearly five percent of its oil, is supporting negotiations between the two sides in the Ethiopian capital.
Source: Agence France Presse
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