Sudan makes concession in oil talks but no deal in sight
Mon Jul 30, 2012 7:51pm GMT
* Rivals argue over oil export fee for South Sudan
* Still far apart on deal
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, July 30 (Reuters) - Sudan said on Friday it had made price
concessions in oil talks with newly-independent neighbour South Sudan, but
the two countries remained far apart on a deal to resolve disputes that have
already brought them to the brink of war.
A Sudanese oil ministry official said Khartoum had lowered the amount it
wanted to charge to transport Southern crude through its territory - in a
bid to settle one of a long list of arguments between the rivals.
South Sudan split away from Sudan last year as part of a peace deal that
ended decades of civil war.
But the two countries went their separate ways without agreeing on the
details of dividing their oil industries, the position of their shared
border and the ownership of disputed territories. Their armies have clashed
a number of times since the secession.
South Sudan said during African Union-mediated talks on Monday it had
increased the amount it was prepared to pay to transport its crude through
two major pipelines to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
The offer from the landlocked South was for $9.10 per barrel for one
pipeline and $7.26 per barrel for the other pipeline.
"We have come with a counter-proposal which we think is a step forward ...
We are now offering $32.20 (for each pipeline)" the undersecretary of
Sudan's oil ministry, Awad Abdelfatah, told Reuters on Friday at the talks
venue in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Sudan had earlier demanded $36 a barrel for each pipeline plus back
payments.
Both sides base their offers on conflicting and sometimes changing
assumptions, making comparison to previous offers difficult.
Abdelfatah said South Sudan's latest offer would leave Khartoum with less
than a dollar for both pipelines as the bulk of the sum would go to the
firms operating the facilities.
A senior South Sudanese official in Addis Ababa dismissed Sudan's new offer
on Friday as "nothing new".
Oil provides for about 98 percent of South Sudan's income. Juba is trying to
develop infrastructure and institutions devastated by decades of war.
SECURITY FIRST
South Sudan shut down 350,000 barrels per day of oil production in January
after the north started seizing southern oil to make up for what it called
unpaid export fees.
The latest round of talks, mediated by former South African President Thabo
Mbeki, have also broken down several times over where to set up a
demilitarized border buffer zone - seen as a first step to ending
hostilities.
Sudan has said it wants to make border security a priority at the talks. It
accuses Juba of supporting rebels in two southern border states, a claim
denied by South Sudan.
Abdelfatah said a security deal would have to precede any agreement on
resumption of South Sudan's oil exports.
"We have stated clearly that there will be no agreement on the
transportation of petroleum or any other agreement unless we reach an
agreement on security issues," he said.
"The petroleum facilities are huge, big facilities that can easily be
targeted and the border is a huge border so we need solid peace before we
can start any petroleum operation." (Editing by Louise Ireland and Ulf
Laessing)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Mon Jul 30 2012 - 17:03:33 EDT
