Sudan Halts Half Oil Output as South Sudan Tension Escalates
Sudan shut down about half its oil production after South Sudan’s armed forces captured oil fields in Heglig on April 10, escalating tension over the disputed border region.
Sudanese military airplanes today dropped six bombs near the capital of Unity state in South Sudan, Gideon Gatpan, information minister for the state, said in a phone interview.
South Sudan seceded from the north in July, taking about three-quarters of the formerly unified nation’s daily oil output of 490,000 barrels. The two nations are now locked in dispute over oil revenue-sharing, citizenship rights and border demarcation. South Sudan sent troops into Heglig in the oil-rich Southern Kordofan state of Sudan this week, prompting Sudan to mobilize its military yesterday.
“Oil production in Heglig was immediately shut down after the attack on Tuesday,” Ahmed Haroun, governor of Southern Kordofan, told reporters in Taludi today. “Sudan armed forces will retake Heglig in a matter of hours.”
Sudan pumps about 60,000 barrels a day of crude from oil fields in Heglig, according to Global Witness, a London-based advocacy group. Sudan says international law acknowledges Heglig is part of its territory, while South Sudan disagrees.
African Union
China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd. pump most of the oil in the two countries.
The African Union yesterday called for the immediate withdrawal of South Sudanese forces from Heglig, while Sudan’s parliament directed its negotiators to pull out of talks with its southern neighbor sponsored by the Addis Ababa-based AU.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir told Parliament today he won’t withdraw troops from Heglig, rejecting a call from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that he do so. Kiir also threatened to send forces to the disputed area of Abyei unless the U.N. can get Sudan to remove its troops, he said.
“Khartoum is unlikely to give up this fight easily, given the strategic importance of these oil fields,” Marc Mercer, an Africa associate with Eurasia Group in London, said in an e- mailed response to questions today. “It will put whatever resources it needs to in order to recapture the field. If the south decides not to break down, this could bring both sides to the brink.”
Sudan Airstrikes
South Sudan will probably pull back its forces to avoid an outright war given the north’s military strength, he said.
Today’s airstrikes by Sudan’s military killed one civilian and injured four others in Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, South Sudan’s military spokesman, Philip Aguer, said in a phone interview from the capital, Juba, today.
“The south is being attacked and invaded and our oil fields are the target,” he said.
South Sudan suspended oil production in January amid a dispute with Sudan over the fees to ship crude along a pipeline to Port Sudan’s export terminal on the Red Sea. The north and south fought a two-decade civil war that ended in 2005.
Crude oil rose as much as 0.7 percent to $103.37 a barrel in New York today.