After the most recent drone attacks, Sudan’s government has again instructed oil companies to prepare plans to shut down the pipeline [Getty]
Sudan’s army-aligned government has told energy firms to prepare to stop handling crude oil from South Sudan, which relies on its neighbour for exports, after attacks on key facilities, according to a letter seen by AFP.
In the letter dated Friday, the Sudanese energy and petroleum ministry informed its South Sudanese counterpart that “the risk of stoppage of export operations is very high” after a spate of drone attacks blamed on rival paramilitaries.
A key pump station and a fuel depot in army-controlled areas of Sudan were struck this week, the letter said, as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have increasingly targeted government infrastructure across the country, impacting critical electricity and fuel facilities.
The war between the regular army and the RSF since April 2023 has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and sent ripples through East Africa and beyond.
Landlocked and impoverished, South Sudan’s vital oil exports are usually shipped to global markets from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, with Sudan taking a cut as a transit fee.
Exports via Sudan resumed in January after nearly a year of suspension, following pipeline damage in clashes between the army and the RSF.
Local media in South Sudan estimate the current flow of crude oil at 110,000 barrels per day.
After the most recent drone attacks, Sudan’s government has again instructed oil companies to prepare plans to shut down the pipeline.
“The plan will be set into action if these attacks, which jeopardise these facilities and disable us from carrying out our commitment… continue,” read the energy ministry’s letter, according to a copy provided to AFP on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment from South Sudanese officials.
The halted exports last year had dramatically dented the economy of the young nation, which took over about three-quarters of the oil reserves from Sudan when it achieved independence in 2011.
South Sudan’s Oil Minister Puot Kang Chol is among allies of Vice President Riek Machar who were arrested earlier this year in an ongoing rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Machar, threatening to unravel a fragile peace agreement between the two factions.
Sudan’s army has accused Juba of siding with the RSF.
