AFRICA/SUDAN - Agreement between Khartoum and Juba on oil

Khartoum (Agenzia Fides)-Sudan and South Sudan have reached an agreement on the price Juba has to pay to use the pipelines in Khartoum to export its oil.
According to Pagan Amum, head of the south of Sudan negotiating delegation, Southern Sudan has agreed to pay 9.10 dollars a barrel for exports through the pipeline Petrodar in High Nile, and $ 11 for those which pass through the CNPOC pipeline that starts from the State of Unity.
For months, South Sudan has blocked its oil exports because of a harsh dispute with Khartoum on the use of the pipelines.
According to Amum Sudan asked a fee of $ 36 per barrel, later reduced to $ 25. The head of the South Sudanese negotiators stressed that the agreement reached is therefore convenient to Juba and revealed that South Sudan has offered $ 3 billion in direct financial assistance to Sudan. Khartoum, which after the independence of South Sudan has lost most of the oil reserves, is in fact in serious financial difficulties, which has led to some recent popular protests for the rising prices of basic necessities and taxes.
The agreement will last for three years and a half. After that South Sudan hopes to be able to use a new pipeline which flows in Kenya, to export its oil production.
In September there will be a meeting between the Sudanese President and that of Southern Sudan to face other disputes that divide the two States, first of all the border disputes and that relating to the status of Abyei, the oil-rich border area, which is disputed between Khartoum and Juba. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 06/08/2012)