South Sudan and Sudan have signed an agreement extending an existing oil deal up to March 2022.
The agreement stipulates that Juba pays $26 for each oil barrel passing through the Sudanese pipeline operator, Petrolines for Crude Oil and $24.1 for each oil barrel transported through the Bashayer Pipeline Company.
Through the deal, South Sudan will supply the Khartoum refinery 28,000 barrels per day.
South Sudan’s minister of petroleum, Daniel Awou Chuang, says the extension is mutually beneficial to both countries. The two countries first signed the oil deal in 2012. However, Sudan lost two-thirds of its oil revenues after the split from South Sudan in 2011, but transportation of South Sudan’s oil through Sudan’s pipelines now provides revenues to revive Sudan’s difficult economy.
“As we move on, we know that South Sudan cannot export the crude oil except through Sudan because they have the facilities for that, and also we know Sudan relies on South Sudan in regards to energy facilities for power generation and refinery. This kind of relationship should continue as we move on and that’s why the extension is extending the time beyond what was agreed, and of course we know it is not going to end there” says Awow.
For his part, the Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining Eng Adel Ali Ibrahim says the signing is in a spirit of fraternity and cooperation.