South Sudan may resort to trucking oil if talks fail
Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:51am EST
* Looks for alternative in case talks with Sudan fail
* South Sudan has only 300 km of paved roads
* Oil exports vital to South Sudan's economy
KAMPALA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Landlocked South Sudan may rely on trucks to
export its crude oil if talks with Sudan aimed at re-starting exports
through a pipeline fail, a South Sudanese deputy minister said on Wednesday.
The African neighbours came close to war last April in the worst border
clashes since South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 under a 2005 deal which
ended decades of civil war.
Talks failed to agree on how to withdraw troops from their disputed border
after a round of talks in Ethiopia last week, delaying again the resumption
of the crucial oil exports.
Mary Jervase Yak, South Sudan's deputy minister of finance
<
http://www.reuters.com/finance> and economic planning, told reporters in
the Ugandan capital Kampala they were exploring the possibility of exporting
crude using other means.
"If the talks fail completely then we will think of alternatives such as
moving of crude by trucks. It's being considered but we're still working on
infrastructure," she said on the sidelines of an oil conference.
She did not offer further details about the plan. South Sudan's economy has
suffered, mainly though a shortage of dollars to finance imports, ever since
exports were stopped.
South Sudan mainly imports goods through neighbouring Uganda but an
underdeveloped road network connecting the two countries is a major obstacle
to the trade between the two nations.
South Sudan has just 300 kilometres of paved roads. It plans to spend $4
billion over the next decade to improve its road network, the government
said last August.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Duncan Miriri and William Hardy)
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Received on Wed Jan 23 2013 - 19:57:33 EST
